NASA’s TRACERS mission, or the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, will fly in low Earth orbit through the polar cusps, funnel-shaped holes in the magnetic field, to study magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Download full video<\/a>. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center\/Lacey Young<\/p>\n The TRACERS spacecraft are slated to launch no earlier than late July 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The two TRACERS spacecraft will orbit Earth to study how the solar wind \u2014 a continuous outpouring of electrically charged particles from the Sun \u2014 interacts with Earth\u2019s magnetic shield, the magnetosphere.<\/p>\n As solar wind flows out from the Sun, it carries the Sun\u2019s embedded magnetic field out across the solar system. Reaching speeds over one million miles per hour, this soup of charged particles and magnetic field plows into planets in its path.<\/p>\n \u201cEarth\u2019s magnetosphere<\/a> acts as a protective bubble that deflects the brunt of the solar wind\u2019s force. You can think of it as a bar magnet that’s rotating and floating around in space,\u201d said John Dorelli, TRACERS mission science lead at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cAs the solar wind collides with Earth\u2019s magnetic field, this interaction builds up energy that can cause the magnetic field lines to snap and explosively fling away nearby particles at high speeds \u2014 this is magnetic reconnection.\u201d<\/p>\n Openings in Earth\u2019s magnetic field at the North and South Poles, called polar cusps, act as funnels allowing charged particles to stream down towards Earth and collide with atmospheric gases. These phenomena are pieces of the space weather system that is in constant motion around our planet \u2014 whose impacts range from breathtaking auroras<\/a> to disruption of communications systems and power grids. In May 2024, Earth experienced the strongest geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years<\/a>, which affected high-voltage power lines and transformers, forced trans-Atlantic flights to change course, and caused GPS-guided tractors to veer off-course.<\/p>\n The TRACERS mission\u2019s twin satellites, each a bit larger than a washing machine, will fly in tandem, one behind the other, in a relatively low orbit about 360 miles above Earth. Traveling over 16,000 mph, each satellite hosts a suite of instruments<\/a> to measure different aspects of extremely hot, ionized gas called plasma and how it interacts with Earth\u2019s magnetosphere.<\/p>\n The satellites will focus where Earth\u2019s magnetic field dips down to the ground at the North polar cusp. By placing the twin TRACERS satellites in a Sun-synchronous orbit, they always pass through Earth\u2019s dayside polar cusp, studying thousands of reconnection events at these concentrated areas.<\/p>\n This will build a step-by-step picture of how magnetic reconnection changes over time and from Earth\u2019s dayside to its nightside.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s TRICE-2 mission<\/a> also studied magnetic reconnection near Earth, but with a pair of sounding rockets launched into the northern polar cusp over the Norwegian Sea in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cThe TRICE mission took great data. It took a snapshot of the Earth system in one state. It proved that these instruments could make this kind of measurement and achieve this kind of science,\u201d said David Miles, TRACERS principal investigator at the University of Iowa. \u201cBut the system’s more complicated than that. The TRACERS mission demonstrates how you can use multi-spacecraft technology to get a picture of how things are moving and evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t DAVID MILES<\/p>\n TRACERS principal investigator, University of Iowa<\/p>\n Because previous missions could only take one measurement of an event per launch, too many changes in the region prevented forming a full picture. Following each other closely in orbit, the twin TRACERS satellites will provide multiple snapshots of the same area in rapid succession, spaced as closely as 10 seconds apart from each other, reaching a record-breaking 3,000 measurements in one year. These snapshots will build a picture of how the whole Earth system behaves in reaction to space weather, allowing scientists to better understand how to predict space weather in the magnetosphere.<\/p>\n The TRACERS mission will collaborate with other NASA heliophysics missions, which are strategically placed near Earth and across the solar system. At the Sun, NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe<\/a> closely observes our closest star, including magnetic reconnection<\/a> there and its role in heating and accelerating the solar wind that drives the reconnection events investigated by TRACERS.<\/p>\n Data from recently launched NASA missions, EZIE<\/a> (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer), studying electrical currents at Earth\u2019s nightside, and PUNCH<\/a> (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) studying the solar wind and interactions in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, can be combined with observations from TRACERS. With research from these missions, scientists will be able to get a more complete understanding of how and when Earth\u2019s protective magnetic shield can suddenly connect with solar wind, allowing the Sun\u2019s material into Earth\u2019s system.<\/p>\n \u201cThe TRACERS mission will be an important addition to NASA\u2019s heliophysics fleet.\u201d said Reinhard Friedel, TRACERS program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cThe missions in the fleet working together increase understanding of our closest star to improve our ability to understand, predict, and prepare for space weather impacts on humans and technology in space.\u201d<\/p>\n The TRACERS mission is led by David Miles at the University of Iowa with support from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. NASA\u2019s Heliophysics Explorers Program Office at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the mission for the agency\u2019s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley, all lead instruments on TRACERS that study changes in the magnetic field and electric field. NASA\u2019s Launch Services Program, based at the agency\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR (Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n