HelioSwarm: A Multipoint, Multiscale Mission to Characterize Turbulence

TL;DR

HelioSwarm is a NASA mission deploying nine spacecraft to make simultaneous measurements across multiple scales, aiming to understand plasma turbulence mechanisms in the heliosphere and beyond.

Contribution

This paper introduces the HelioSwarm mission concept, detailing its scientific goals, spacecraft configuration, and instrumentation to study plasma turbulence.

Findings

Designed to measure plasma turbulence at multiple scales

Aims to reveal energy transfer mechanisms in plasmas

Provides a new multipoint measurement approach

Abstract

HelioSwarm (HS) is a NASA Medium-Class Explorer mission of the Heliophysics Division designed to explore the dynamic three-dimensional mechanisms controlling the physics of plasma turbulence, a ubiquitous process occurring in the heliosphere and in plasmas throughout the universe. This will be accomplished by making simultaneous measurements at nine spacecraft with separations spanning magnetohydrodynamic and sub-ion spatial scales in a variety of near-Earth plasmas. In this paper, we describe the scientific background for the HS investigation, the mission goals and objectives, the observatory reference trajectory and instrumentation implementation before the start of Phase B. Through multipoint, multiscale measurements, HS promises to reveal how energy is transferred across scales and boundaries in plasmas throughout the universe.