Swarm satellite mission to try to sense ocean magnetism

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, San Francisco

European scientists are going to try to measure the movement of the oceans by tracing their magnetism alone.

The effort will be achieved using three super-sensitive spacecraft called Swarm, which should launch in 2012.

The magnetic signal of the tides sweeping around the globe has been seen before, but the new mission would aim to observe far more detail.

It should provide additional data on how the oceans transfer heat around the Earth, a key feature of the climate.


READ MORE: BBC News - Swarm satellite mission to try to sense ocean magnetism