NASA's TRACERS To Study 'Magnetic Explosions' Triggered By Space Weather

Space.com

NASA's Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission will study "magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth's atmosphere," according to the Goddard Space Flight Center.   Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Producer/Editor: Lacey Young (eMITS) Writer: Mara Johnson-Groh (eMITS) Narrator: Rose Brunning (KBR, Inc.) Animators: Adriana Manrique (eMITS), Wes Buchanan (eMITS), Krystofer Kim (eMITS) Talent: Hyunju Connor (NASA), John Dorelli (NASA), David Miles (University of Iowa), Craig Kletzing (University of Iowa), Stephen Fuselier (Southwest Research Institute), Richard Prasad (Millennium Space Systems)  Additional Video and Animations: University of Iowa Southwest Research Institute Millennium Space Systems Andøya Space / Trond Abrahamsen  Sound Effects:  Pixabay

Transcript

00:00Earth is constantly bombarded by the solar wind, waves of dangerous charged particles

00:06from the sun traveling at speeds over one million miles per hour.

00:11Our planet's magnetic shield, the magnetosphere, protects us from the brunt of this technology

00:16imperiling force.

00:18But high above each of Earth's poles, there's one vulnerable spot in this shield, where solar

00:23wind is funneled straight down toward Earth and our technology, the polar cusps.

00:29These solar wind energies can negatively impact power grease, radio communications, satellites

00:36and even astronauts, which is why understanding its mysteries and its pattern is key to protecting

00:44our future.

00:46To better understand these space weather effects, NASA is launching a new mission called Tracers.

00:52The two spacecraft will travel through the polar cusps to take groundbreaking measurements of

00:57magnetic reconnection, a process that occurs when the solar wind drags the sun's magnetic

01:02field into Earth's.

01:03When the sun and Earth's magnetic fields collide, there's a tremendous energy release.

01:12The magnetic field lines snap and reconnect, creating new field lines.

01:17This process, known as magnetic reconnection, sends highly energized particles in new directions,

01:24including down toward the Earth.

01:28Reconnection is very difficult to observe directly because it occurs on small scale compared to

01:36the vast size of Earth's magnetosphere.

01:40Magnetic reconnection happens in various places throughout the magnetosphere, but it is most

01:45easily studied at the polar cusps.

01:48When the solar wind slams into Earth's magnetic shield, it's here at the cusps that the impacts

01:54reverberate.

01:56By flying through the polar cusps, Tracers will be able to directly study the signatures of

02:01magnetic reconnection, helping scientists better understand and prepare for the impacts of

02:06space weather on Earth.

02:08As we understand that and are able to model it, we're able to get more accurate in terms

02:15of how we protect against it and then what we are doing in order to mitigate those risks.

02:21Scientists have caught a glimpse of magnetic reconnection in the polar cusps before, giving

02:26us clues about this process.

02:28NASA's TRACE-2 was one such mission that launched a pair of sounding rockets briefly through

02:33Earth's northern polar cusp in 2018.

02:37Trice took really good data, one low flyer, one high flyer, and it took a snapshot of the

02:42Earth's system in one state.

02:44It proved that these instruments can make this kind of measurement and you can get this kind

02:48of science.

02:49The only thing we could not do with Trice, of course, was to make the measurement multiple

02:55times.

02:56One snapshot doesn't tell you how the whole Earth's system is going to behave, particularly

03:01under all the variation that the solar wind brings us.

03:05A long-standing problem with space physics research is if this is the Earth, you fly

03:09a satellite through the physics you're looking at and you see something.

03:12And then it comes around in orbit later and you see something different.

03:17Building on TRACE-2's legacy, two Tracer spacecraft will take multiple measurements at the polar

03:22cusps by flying in rapid succession, less than two minutes apart.

03:26And so with these two spacecraft flying together, we can address this long-standing problem of

03:32trying to understand whether the signature that we see of a process called reconnection,

03:37when it changes, is that due to something turning on or off?

03:41Or is that just that we're flying from one region to another and so we see a change as

03:45we transition through that region?

03:48People have tried to solve this problem with various combinations of spacecraft.

03:52But without two dedicated spacecraft, it remains an open question as to what's going on.

03:57As the two Tracer spacecraft chase each other around Earth, they'll take a record-breaking

04:023,000 measurements of magnetic reconnection in the first year alone.

04:07These new observations will help scientists better understand and ultimately help defend

04:11us and our technology from the impacts of solar wind on Earth.

04:17So not only will it get a global picture of reconnection in the magnetosphere, but it's also

04:22going to be able to statistically study how reconnection depends on the state of the solar wind.

04:27This is going to really help us understand how to predict space weather in the magnetosphere.

04:32If we can understand these various different situations whether it happens suddenly if you

04:37have one particular kind of event, it happens in lots of different places, then we have a better

04:41way to model that and say, ah, here is the likelihood of seeing a certain kind of effect that would

04:47affect humans.

04:51That was one of our

04:52final interviews with Craig.

04:57Craig Kletzing, the original principal investigator for Tracers and professor at the University

05:02of Iowa, passed away in 2023.

05:07His legacy as a scientist and avid musician lives on through this mission.

05:12Two of his beloved guitar picks have even been integrated into the spacecraft.

05:16So when Tracers launches, there's a little physical piece of Craig, his curiosity, his ingenuity,

05:21and his zeal that we'll go to space one more time.

05:26He was also involved in the two of his faith.

05:33He was also involved in the craft of Phoenix, as well as the last one.

05:34He was also involved in the craft of Phoenix, and we're the one-peräum.

05:37Let's go to the studio.

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