# The upcoming ESA scout nanoMagSat mission, a nanosatellite constellation to further improve geomagnetic field ind Ionospheric environment monitoring and modeling

Gauthier Hulot, Pierdavide Coïsson, Jean-Michel Leger, Lasse B. N. Clausen, John L. Jorgensen, Jose van den Ijssel, Louis Chauvet, Thomas Jager, Florian Deconinck, José Nieto, et al.

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Gauthier Hulot, Pierdavide Coïsson, Jean-Michel Leger, Lasse B. N. Clausen, John L. Jorgensen, et al.. The upcoming ESA scout nanoMagSat mission, a nanosatellite constellation to further improve geomagnetic field ind Ionospheric environment monitoring and modeling. EGU 2025 - EGU general assembly 2025, Apr 2025, Vienne, Austria. cea-05506187

HAL Id: cea-05506187

https://cea.hal.science/cea-05506187v1

Submitted on 11 Feb 2026

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# The Upcoming ESA Scout NanoMagSat Mission, a Nanosatellite Constellation to Further Improve Geomagnetic Field and Ionospheric Environment Monitoring and Modeling

Gauthier Hulot<fnref n="1" />, Pierdavide Coïsson<fnref n="1" />, Jean-Michel Léger<fnref n="2" />, Lasse B. N. Clausen<fnref n="3" />, John L. Jørgensen<fnref n="4" />, Jose van den Ijssel<fnref n="5" />, Louis Chauvet<fnref n="1" />, Thomas Jager<fnref n="2" />, Florian Deconinck<fnref n="6" />, Pepe Nieto<fnref n="7" />, Fabrice Cipriani<fnref n="8" />, Massimiliano Pastena<fnref n="8" />, and Jean-Pascal Lejault<fnref n="8" />

Geomagnetic field and ionospheric environment monitoring is presently achieved with huge success by the three satellites of the Swarm Earth Explorer ESA constellation launched in November 2013. Maintaining and improving observations beyond the lifetime of Swarm is critical for both science investigations and advanced applications. NanoMagSat aims at fulfilling this goal by taking over the Swarm mission while providing even faster local time coverage for better investigations of fast planetary magnetic signals. This will be achieved thanks to a new Low-Earth orbiting constellation of three identical 16U nanosatellites, using two inclined (~ 60°) and one polar orbits at an initial altitude of 545 km. NanoMagSat is being developed within the new ESA Earth Observation Scout framework, which exploits the New Space paradigm to deliver innovative Earth Science missions. It currently is in Phase B and will start deploying end of 2027. The full constellation will be operated for a minimum of three years between 2028 and 2031.

The NanoMagSat constellation is designed to cover all local times (LT) at all latitudes, with special emphasis on latitudes between 60°N and 60°S, where all LT will be visited within about a month, much faster than is currently achieved by the Swarm constellation. Each satellite will carry an advanced Miniaturized Absolute scalar and self-calibrated vector Magnetometer (MAM) with star trackers (STR) collocated on an ultra-stable optical bench at the tip of a deployable boom, a new compact High Frequency Magnetometer (HFM) (at mid-boom), a multi-Needle Langmuir Probe (m-NLP) and dual frequency GNSS receivers (all on the satellite body). This payload suite will acquire high-precision/resolution oriented absolute vector magnetic data at 1 Hz, very low noise scalar and vector magnetic field data at 2 kHz, electron density data at 2 kHz, and electron temperature data at 1 Hz. GNSS receivers will also allow top-side TEC and ionospheric radio-occultation profiles to be recovered.

<footnote n="1">¹Université Paris Cité, Institut de physique du globe de Paris, CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²CEA-Leti, Université Grenoble Alpes, MINATEC 17, rue des Martyrs, 38054, Grenoble Cedex 9 - France</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶Open Cosmos Ltd, Didcot, United Kingdom</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷Comet Aerospace, Valencia, Spain</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸European Space Agency, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands</footnote>
In this presentation, the main science goals of the mission will first be introduced and the rationale for the choice of the payload and constellation design next explained. The various data products currently planned to be produced will also be described. Special emphasis will be put on the innovative aspects of the mission with respect to Swarm and other previous missions. Finally, the benefit of relying on such nanosatellite constellations for maintaining long-term observations of the magnetic field and ionospheric environment, to complement ground-based observations will also be discussed.