Cluster Constellation Separation History

Intervals between "Finish" and "Start" are times in which the manoeuvres are occuring and spacecraft are changing orbit

The separation distances refer to the situations (twice per orbit) when the spacecraft are arranged at the vertices of an equlilateral tetrahedron. If two numbers are given (e.g. 10,000/1,000) the second number gives the separation of Clusters 3 and 4, and the first refers to the equlilateral triangle formed by Clusters 1,2 and 3

 

On plot
Region
Separation/km
Start (approx)
Finish (approx)
1
Cusp 2001
600
01 Jan 2001
10 May 2001
2
Tail 2001
2,000
01 June 2001
06 Jan 2002
3
Cusp 2002
100
01 Mar 2002
16 Jun 2002
4
Tail 2002
3,700
10 July 2002
drifts to 5000km
5
Cusp 2003
5,000
24 Jan 2003
04 Jun 2003
6
Tail 2003
200
04 July 2003
drifts to 260km
7
Cusp 2004
260
15 Jan 2004
02 May 2004
8
Tail 2004
1,000
01 June 2004
drifts to 1300km
9
Cusp 2005
1,300
09 Dec 2004
26 May 2005
10
Tail 2005
10,000/1,000
06 July 2005
02 Nov 2005
11
Cusp 2006
10,000
14 Nov 2005
no manoeuvres
12
Tail 2006
10,000
no manoeuvres
01 Nov 2006
13
Cusp 2007
10,000/450
07 Dec 2006
20 Jun 2007
14
Tail 2007
10,000/40
04 Jul 2007
no manoeuvres
15
Cusp 2008
10,000/40
no manoeuvres
11 Jun 2008
16
Tail 2008
10,000/3,000
02 Aug 2008
10 Nov 2008
17
Solar Wind 2009
10,000
11 Dec 2008
drifts to 1000km
18
AAR 2009
1000
27 May 2009
01 Jul 2009
19
Tail 2009
10,000/500
06 Aug 2009
19 Nov 2009
20
AAR 2010
1000
12 Dec 2009
21 Jul 2010
21
Tail 2010
5000
07 Sep 2010
no manoeuvres
22
GI - High latitude magnetopause electrons (Walsh)
5000
29 Mar 2011
2 April 2011
23
Solar Wind 2011
5000
no manoeuvres
25 July 2011
24
AAR 2011
5000/20
01 Sept 2011
22 Jan 2012
25
GI - solar wind turbulence (Yordanova)
5000/40
04 Feb 2012
23 Mar 2012
26
GI - magnetopause (Retino)
5000/60
05 Apr 2012
01 June 2012
27
GI - tail flow braking (Retino)
5000/400
28 Jun 2012
28 Aug 2012
28
GI - large scale flank waves (Foullon)
40000/8000
3 Nov 2012
15 Nov 2012
29
GI - 3D reconnection (Pu)
3500/200
20 Jan 2013
16 Feb 2013
30
AAR 2013
3500/20
13 Mar 2013
19 Jun 2013
31
Inner Magnetosphere 2013
100/~10
15 Jul 2013
16 Oct 2013
32
GI - cusp currents (Pitout)
4000/1000
01 Nov 2013
16 Jan 2014
33
Ring current with SWARM
3000/800
07 Mar 2014
06 Jun 2014
34
Tail 2014
7000/300
01 Aug 2014
15 Oct 2014
35
GI - cusp currents (Pitout)
2000/1000
04 Nov 2014
29 Dec 2014
36
Bow Shock small scales
4000/6
07 Jan 2015
05 Feb 2015
37
GI - Turbulence (Alexandrova)
4000/6
06 Feb 2015
09 Mar 2015
38
GI - Thrusters (Burgess)
4000/1000
25 Mar 2015
Drifts to 4000/1500
39
GI - Ring current with SWARM (Dunlop)
4000/1500
05 Jun 2015
Drifts to 4000/500
40
Tail 2015
4000/500
01 Aug 2015
Drifts to 30000/1000
41
GI - cusp, different local time (Bogdanova)
30000/1000
01 Dec 2015
Drifts to 22000/3
42
GI - Bow Shock 3km (Khotyaintsev)
22000/3
01 Jan 2016
Drifts to 20000/100
43
GI - solar wind reconnection (Kajdic)
20000/100
01 Feb 2016
Drifts to 23000/4000
44
GI - Bow Shock structures (Blaco Cano)
23000/4000
01 Apr 2016
Drifts to 27000/5000
45
GI - KH waves on dawn flank (Foullon)
27000/5000
01 Jun 2016
Drifts to 7000/200
46
Tail
7000/200
01 Aug 2016
Drifts to 3700
47
Magnetopause
3700
01 Dec 2016
01 Apr 2017
48
Tail
7000/1000
01 Aug 2017
Drifts to 22000/6000
49
Exterior cusp different local time
22000/6000
01 Dec 2017
Drifts to 12500/2500
50
Jet breaking region at perigee
12500/2500
01 Feb 2018
Drifts to 67000/3
51
High and low latitude chorus
67000/3
01 Oct 2018
Drifts to 54000/9000
52
Solar wind local monitor and magnetopause
54000/9000
01 Feb 2019
Drifts to 40000/120
53
Magnetotail lobes and plasmasheet
40000/120
01 Aug 2019
TBD
C3 axis tilt campaign: 25 April 2008 - 30 May 2008
Inter-Spacecraft Distance (km)

 

Return to Cluster PEACE Home Page

By Gill Watson

Last updated on  27-Feb-2015   by Gill Watson