Constellation History
Current mission
The separation of the spacecraft in the Cluster quartet has been varied throughout the mission in order to study plasmas at different scales. Below is a table of the approximate separations during different campaigns.
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 later number gives the separation of Clusters 3 and 4, and the former refers to the equlilateral triangle formed by Clusters 1,2 and (tbc) 3
| Region | Separation/km | Start (approx) | Finish (approx) |
| Cusp 2001 | 600 | 01 Jan 2001 | 10 May 2001 |
| Tail 2001 | 2,000 | 01 June 2001 | 06 Jan 2002 |
| Cusp 2002 | 100 | 13 Feb 2002 | 16 Jun 2002 |
| Tail 2002 | 3,700 | 10 July 2002 | (no maneouvres) |
| Cusp 2003 | 5,000 | (no maneouvres) | 04 Jun 2003 |
| Tail 2003 | 200 | 04 July 2003 | (no maneouvres) |
| Cusp 2004 | 260 | (no maneouvres) | 02 May 2004 |
| Tail 2004 | 1,000 | 01 June 2004 | (no maneouvres) |
| Cusp 2005 | 1,300 | (no maneouvres) | 26 May 2005 |
| Tail 2005 | 10,000/1,000 | 06 July 2005 | 02 Nov 2005 |
| Cusp 2006 | 10,000 | 14 Nov 2005 | no manoeuvres |
| Tail 2006 | 10,000 | no manoeuvres | 01 Nov 2006 |
| Cusp 2007 | 10,000/450 | 07 Dec 2006 | 20 Jun 2007 |
| Tail 2007 | 10,000/40 | 04 Jul 2007 | no manoeuvres |
| Cusp 2008 | 10,000/40 | no manoeuvres | 11 Jun 2008 |
| Tail 2008 | 10,000/3,000 | 02 Aug 2008 | 10 Nov 2008 |
| Solar Wind 2009 | 10,000 | 11 Dec 2008 | 16 Apr 2009 |
| AAR 2009 | 1000 | 27 May 2009 | 01 Jul 2009 |
| Tail 2009 | 10,000/500 | 06 Aug 2009 | 19 Nov 2009 |
| AAR 2010 | 1000 | 19 Dec 2009 | 21 Jul 2010 |
| Tail 2010 | 5000 | 07 Sep 2010 | tbc |
| 2010-2015 | tbc | tbc | tbc |
Resources:
Space Plasma Resources:
Beginners guide to space plasma physics
Public Engagement
Space Plasma Meetings:
All Meetings
Seminar Series
Group Contact:
Name
+44 (0)123 4568
email.ucl.ac.uk