Mike Hapgood (STFC), Richard Holme (Liverpool), Malcolm Dunlop (STFC) and Hermann Luehr (Potsdam)

The ESA SWARM mission is a three-spacecraft mission to explore the Earth's magnetic field in unprecedented detail and is due for launch in the near future (July 2012). It will provide new insights into the many sources that contribute to this magnetic field - both within the Earth and those arising externally in the ionosphere and magnetosphere. This, in turn, will advance our understanding of the interior and exterior regions of our planet. These advances require a coordinated scientific effort involving experts across a range of topics covered by RAS, including the fields of solid-Earth geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics, space instrumentation and ground-based measurements (for example, to support calibration and validation of the spacecraft data). This session will review current work and open questions, and will encourage wider participation by the relevant science communities to get the best science out of the mission. We welcome oral and poster presentations that address any and all aspects of the science preparations for SWARM, including calibration and validation activities and plans for science exploitation of the data, including coordination with data from other spacecraft and with ground-based sensors. We particularly welcome contributions that will stimulate new collaborations and proposals for SWARM science.