Progress of Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) Mission

SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission is a joint ESA-CAS space science project. The working orbit is a 19 Re 5000 km HEO with 4 scientific instruments:Soft X-ray Imager(SXI), Ultra-Violet Imager (UVI), Magnetometer (MAG) and Light Ion Analyzer (LIA). SMILE aims to understand the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere through the images of SXI and UVI and in-situ measurement from LIA and MAG. After the kick-off in 2016, the SMILE project went to Phase A study. The mission adoption is scheduled for November 2018, with a target launch date in 2022-2023. In this paper, the background of the mission, scientific objectives, the design and characteristics of scientific instruments and the mission outline will be introduced in details