NASA’s TRACERS Studies Magnetic Explosions Above Earth

Released Monday, July 14, 2025

ID: 14862

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.

Magnetic reconnection is a mysterious process that happens when the solar wind, made of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields from the Sun, collides with Earth's magnetic shield, causing magnetic field lines to violently snap and explosively fling away particles at high speeds. This process has huge impacts on Earth, from causing breathtaking auroras to disrupting communications and power grids on Earth.

TRACERS is launching no earlier than summer 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Find out more about the TRACERS mission and how it will help us better understand the ways space weather affects us on Earth: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/

Produced Video

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Complete transcript available.

Music Credit: "Praxis I,” “Three Voices,” and “Die Vogel” by Alexis Francois Georges Delong [SACEM], “Anticipation” by Nicholas Smith [PRS], “Ocean Wisdom” by Hugo Dubery and Philippe Galtier [SACEM], and “Call from the Sea” by MACARON [SACEM] from Universal Production Music

Additional Video and Animations: University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, Millennium Space Systems, Andøya Space / Trond Abrahamsen

Sound Effects: Pixabay