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Based on the case studies and statistical analysis of earthquake-related ionospheric disturbances mainly from DEMETER satellite, ground-based GPS and ionosounding data, this paper summarizes the statistical characteristics of earthquake-related ionospheric disturbances, including electromagnetic emissions, plasma perturbations and variation of energetic particle flux. According to the main results done by Chinese scientists, fusing with the existed study from global researches, seismo-ionospheric disturbances usually occurred a few days or hours before earthquake occurrence. Paralleling to these case studies, lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere (LAI) coupling mechanisms are checked and optimized. A thermo-electric model was proposed to explain the seismo-electromagnetic effects before earthquakes. A propagation model was put forward to explain the electromagnetic waves into the ionosphere. According to the requirement of earthquake prediction research, China seismo-electromagnetic satellite, the first space-based platform of Chinese earthquake stereoscopic observation system, is proposed and planned to launch at about the end of 2014. It focuses on checking the LAI model and distinguishing earthquake-related ionospheric disturbance. The preliminary design for the satellite will adopt CAST-2000 platform with eight payloads onboard. It is believed that the satellite will work together with the ground monitoring network to improve the capability to capture seismo-electromagnetic information, which is beneficial for earthquake monitoring and prediction researches.

Using magnetic field data from the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) mission, we derive a global geomagnetic field model, which we call the CSES Global Geomagnetic Field Model (CGGM). This model describes the Earth’s magnetic main field and its linear temporal evolution over the time period between March 2018 and September 2019. As the CSES mission was not originally designed for main field modelling, we carefully assess the ability of the CSES orbits and data to provide relevant data for such a purpose. A number of issues are identified, and an appropriate modelling approach is found to mitigate these. The resulting CGGM model appears to be of high enough quality, and it is next used as a parent model to produce a main field model extrapolated to epoch 2020.0, which was eventually submitted on October 1, 2019 as one of the IGRF-13 2020 candidate models. This CGGM candidate model, the first ever produced by a Chinese-led team, is also the only one relying on a data set completely independent from that used by all other candidate models. A successful validation of this candidate model is performed by comparison with the final (now published) IGRF-13 2020 model and all other candidate models. Comparisons of the secular variation predicted by the CGGM parent model with the final IGRF-13 2020–2025 predictive secular variation also reveal a remarkable agreement. This shows that, despite their current limitations, CSES magnetic data can already be used to produce useful IGRF 2020 and 2020–2025 secular variation candidate models to contribute to the official IGRF-13 2020 and predictive secular variation models for the coming 2020–2025 time period. These very encouraging results show that additional efforts to improve the CSES magnetic data quality could make these data very useful for long-term monitoring of the main field and possibly other magnetic field sources, in complement to the data provided by missions such as the ESA Swarm mission.

Four levels of the data from the search coil magnetometer (SCM) onboard the China Seismo‐Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) are defined and described. The data in different levels all contain three components of the waveform and/or spectrum of the induced magnetic field around the orbit in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 20 kHz; these are divided into an ultra‐low‐frequency band (ULF, 10–200 Hz), an extremely low frequency band (ELF, 200–2200 Hz), and a very low frequency band (VLF, 1.8–20 kHz). Examples of data products for Level‐2, Level‐3, and Level‐4 are presented. The initial results obtained in the commission test phase demonstrated that the SCM was in a normal operational status and that the data are of high enough quality to reliably capture most space weather events related to low‐frequency geomagnetic disturbances.

The High Precision Magnetometer (HPM) is one of the main payloads onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES). The HPM consists of two Fluxgate Magnetometers (FGM) and the Coupled Dark State Magnetometer (CDSM), and measures the magnetic field from DC to 15 Hz. The FGMs measure the vector components of the magnetic field; while the CDSM detects the magnitude of the magnetic field with higher accuracy, which can be used to calibrate the linear parameters of the FGM. In this paper, brief descriptions of measurement principles and performances of the HPM, ground, and in-orbit calibration results of the FGMs are presented, including the thermal drift and magnetic interferences from the satellite. The HPM in-orbit vector data calibration includes two steps: sensor non-linearity corrections based on on-ground calibration and fluxgate linear parameter calibration based on the CDSM measurements. The calibration results show a reasonably good stability of the linear parameters over time. The difference between the field magnitude calculated from the calibrated FGM components and the magnitude directly measured by the CDSM is just 0.5 nT (1σ) when the linear parameters are fitted separately for the day-and the night-side. Satellite disturbances have been analyzed including soft and hard remanence as well as magnetization of the magnetic torquer, radiation from the Tri-Band Beacon, and interferences from the rotation of the solar wing. A comparison shows consistency between the HPM and SWARM magnetic field data. Observation examples are introduced in the paper, which show that HPM data can be used to survey the global geomagnetic field and monitor the magnetic field disturbances in the ionosphere.