The SMILE mission, a collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has officially commenced scientific operations. The spacecraft launched on May 19 aboard a Vega-C rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, and reached its target elliptical orbit on June 20.
The mission utilizes a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of 120,920 km and a perigee of 5,027 km, inclined at 73 degrees. This trajectory allows the satellite to maintain continuous observations of Earth's magnetic field and poles for the majority of the year.
SMILE carries four primary instruments: the Soft X-ray Imager, the UV Imager, the Light Ion Analyzer, and the Magnetometer. The UV Imager successfully captured a full ring of auroras around the North Pole on July 24, marking the first such observation since 2008.
The Soft X-ray Imager is currently undergoing software adjustments to mitigate stray light interference detected during initial testing. The team expects to capture high-quality observations of the magnetopause and the northern polar cusp by mid-October.
The primary mission duration is set for three years, with the possibility of extensions depending on the spacecraft's operational status. The collected data will support research into solar storms, geomagnetic activity, and the interaction between solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere.
