SAWA: A Small Space Weather Mission for Investigations of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling

This work presents the concept of the SAWA mission, a Polish nanosatellite project designed to strengthen space weather monitoring. SAWA is developed in line with the European Space Agency’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Safety (S2P) programmes and forms part of the Distributed Space Weather Sensor System (D3S). The mission aims to investigate magnetosphere–ionosphere–thermosphere (MIT) interactions using both in-situ observations and remote sensing techniques. Measured parameters include the geomagnetic field, plasma wave spectra, plasma density, thermospheric neutral density, and atomic oxygen density. An optional payload for energetic particle monitoring is under consideration. The mission has completed the analysis and feasibility stages (Phase 0/A) and is expected to become an important component of the European space weather awareness system in the coming years.