Joint Cluster/Ground‐Based Studies in the First 20 Years of the Cluster Mission

Abstract

Ground‐based facilities make an important contribution to our understanding of the magnetospheric system. Coordination with ground‐based facilities has been embedded within the Cluster mission since before launch, and this has given rise to a large number of studies which have exploited data from both Cluster and one or more of the diverse range of ground‐based instrumentation that have been available during the mission timespan. In this paper, we review the advances that have been made to our understanding of the magnetosphere‐ionosphere system, in which insight has been enhanced by combining ground‐based observations with observations from Cluster. Topics covered span from the bow shock to the magnetotail and down to the aurora.

Ground-based and additional science support for SMILE

“…The in situ measurements of the four Cluster spacecraft (Escoubet et al, 2001) have been combined with ground-based measurements throughout the mission; this association has been embedded within the Cluster consortium since before launch in 2000 (Fear, 2022). There is a possible brief window of joint Cluster-SMILE operations if the Cluster mission is extended beyond its current mission end up to a maximum of August 2026, and SMILE remains on its current schedule.…”

“…These experimental facilities provide inter-hemispheric, global, regional, and local measurements at multiple spatial scales and cadences. We build on experience and good-practice obtained by the community during collaborations between space and ground-based missions, such as the European CLuster Assimi-laTion project (ECLAT; Milan et al, 2013; see Section 7) or as reviewed in Fear (2022) or Amm et al (2005). Best practice indicates that early inclusion of the ground-based community before launch leads to the widest range of timely scientific return.…”