VIKING Swedish Mission

Viking was Sweden’s first research satellite. It was built and equipped primarily to investigate and understand auroral processes, such as how the particles that give rise to the aurora are accelerated and how they interact with different electric and magnetic fields. It also investigated the structure and dynamics of the aurora as well as electromagnetic radiation.

• Viking was launched on 22 February 1986 with an Ariane launcher from Kourou(French Guiana).
• The nominal life time of the satellite was 8 months ; it sent data for about 15 months, until May 1987. The duration of some data-sequence was up to 160 minutes per orbit.
• The Viking mission was devoted to the study of the acceleration processes of charged particles which are taking place in the auroral regions of the Earth's magnetosphere. The satellite carried five experiments to measure electric fields (V1), magnetic fields (V2), charged particles (V3), waves (V4) and auroral images (V5).

Access to mission data

Access to mission documents