Understanding Ionospheric Conditions using the e-POP on Swarm-E

Swarm-E carries the e-POP payload, which consists of eight scientific instruments. The Radio Receiver Instrument (RRI) on e-POP may be used to detect density structures that modify the characteristics of transionospheric HF radio waves from ground-based transmitters. RRI has a cross-dipole antenna designed to determine the polarisation characteristics of the incident radio waves. Joint experiments with other instruments, IRM (Imaging and Rapid-scanning ion Mass spectrometer) and MGF (Fluxgate Magnetometer), complement RRI for better understanding of the local ionosphere conditions and integrated conditions along the path between a ground-based transmitter and Swarm-E. Under optimum conditions, the RRI determines the full polarisation characteristics. This presentation discusses past and future contributions to ionospheric science of the Swarm constellation.