Abstract. A brief review of methods of diagnostics and monitoring of space weather in the Earth's magneto-sphere, and the diagnostic instruments currently in use, is presented. The large scale of the magnetosphere, the presence of several mutually related regions and processes, the variability of the structural variations are shown to necessitate monitoring of these magnetospheric regions simultaneously or with a slight enough time delay. Considering the large spatial scale of the three-dimensional space system of the Earth's magne-tosphere (7 radii of the Earth in the direction of the Sun, 10 radii of the Earth in the perpendicular direction, and practically 15 radii in the anti-solar direction), it is possible to roughly estimate the required number of diagnostic stations (satellites) as 100. It is concluded that creation and launch of such a number of modern research and service-class satellites is very expensive enterprise and not an obligatory for complex monitoring of the magnetosphere. The discussed rational approach to the problem suggests creation of a system of magnetospheric nanosatellites equipped with a minimum number of diagnostic instruments. 

Keywords: space weather, space plasma, solar wind, magnetosphere, nanosatellites, instrument complex

References:

1. Petrukovich A.A., Dmitriev A.V., Struminskiy A.B. Solnechno-zemnye svyazi i kosmicheskaya pogoda v Plazmennaya geliofizika (Solar and Terrestrial Communications and Space Weather in Plasma Heliophysics), Zelenyy L., Veselovskiy I., ed., Moscow, 2008, vol. 2, р. 55. (in Russ.)
2. Schwenn R. Living Rev. Solar Phys., 2006, no. 2(3), http://www.livingreviews.org/lrsp-2006-2.
3. Kuznetsov V.D. Space Engineering and Technology, 2014, no. 3(6), pp. 3–13. (in Russ.)
4. Schrijver C.J. et al. Advances in Space Research, 2015, no. 12(55), pp. 2745–2807.
5. Kuznetsov V.D. Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 2010, no. 16, pp. 39–44 (in Russ.)