UK Space Agency is co‑leading the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission, a partnership between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The mission will image the Earth’s magnetosphere in three dimensions for the first time, studying how solar wind triggers geomagnetic storms and auroras. The UK contributes the core scientific instrument, the Soft X‑ray Imager (SXI), and serves as overall mission co‑principal investigator. UK teams have delivered the SXI flight instrument to the spacecraft, with CCD detectors supplied by Teledyne e2v under a £1.5 million contract. The launch is scheduled for 2026, after completion of the SXI Preliminary Design Review in 2020 and the instrument delivery in June 2024. The data will improve space‑weather forecasting models and support UK research in planetary science, solar physics, and space plasma.
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Original source: https://www.gov.uk/
https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/smile-solar-wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere-link-explorer
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