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NASA’s TRACERS Satellites Poised for Vandenberg Launch to Probe Solar-Earth Magnetic Link

Flying seconds apart through polar cusps the twin craft aim to capture multidimensional plasma and magnetic data that could sharpen space weather forecasts.

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The northern lights, also known as the aurora borealis, glows over Half Dome in Yosemite National Park on Oct. 11, 2024.

Overview

  • The TRACERS mission begins its one-year primary phase today at 2:13 p.m. ET aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
  • Two identical satellites will trail each other by 10 to 120 seconds in low Earth orbit to record near real-time variations in plasma and magnetic fields during over 3,000 cusp crossings.
  • Five instruments developed by SwRI, UC Berkeley, UCLA and Millennium Space Systems will deliver the first long-term multidimensional observations of magnetic reconnection in Earth’s northern polar cusp.
  • Led by the University of Iowa with support from Southwest Research Institute and Millennium Space Systems under NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program, the $170 million mission could remain operational beyond its initial 12-month scope.
  • Data from TRACERS will underpin earlier forecasts of solar storm activity and help protect GPS, power grids, satellites and astronaut safety by improving space weather predictions.