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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/", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 378441, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14862/#media_group_378441", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "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

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Orange particles and shading represent an artistic rendering of what flying through the polar cusp would look like if the region was visible to the naked eye.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 14829, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14829/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "TRACERS Thermal Vacuum Testing at Millennium Space Systems", "description": "NASA’s Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS, is embarking on its integration and testing campaign, during which all of the instruments and components will be added to the spacecraft structure, tested to ensure they will survive the harsh environments of launch and space, and made ready to execute its mission. The TRACERS mission will help scientists understand an explosive process called magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic fields and particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field. By understanding this process, scientists will be able to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity on Earth, such as auroras and disruptions to telecommunications.Below are clips of Millennium Space Systems’ team members conducting Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) testing at the Boeing Space Systems Laboratory in El Segundo, California.Learn more about the mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/ || ", "release_date": "2025-04-25T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-06-02T12:39:50.809899-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1154712, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014800/a014829/14829_TRACERS_TVAC_06_print.jpg", "filename": "14829_TRACERS_TVAC_06_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Photo: Millennium Space Systems team members prepare the TRACERS spacecraft for Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) testing at Boeing Space Systems Laboratory in El Segundo, CA. 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By understanding this process, scientists will be able to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity on Earth, such as auroras and disruptions to telecommunications.Below are clips of TRACERS’ instrument design, build, and testing at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.Learn more about the mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/ || ", "release_date": "2025-04-24T15:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-04-23T09:54:44.701882-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1154631, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014800/a014827/14827_TRACERSUIowa_12_print.jpg", "filename": "14827_TRACERSUIowa_12_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Photo: Andrew Carton, TRACERS aerospace engineer, conducts final tests on the TRACERS instruments while they’re bolted onto the mock spacecraft “Flat Sat” in a clean room at Van Allen Hall at the University of Iowa, before the instrument suite was packed and shipped to Millennium Space Systems in California.Credit: University of Iowa / Tim Schoon", "width": 1024, "height": 682, "pixels": 698368 } }, { "id": 14805, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14805/", "page_type": "Animation", "title": "TRACERS Spacecraft Beauty Passes", "description": "The TRACERS, or the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, mission will help scientists understand an explosive process called magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. 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By understanding this process, scientists will be able to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity on Earth, such as auroras and disruptions to telecommunications.Learn more about the mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/ || ", "release_date": "2025-03-24T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-06-03T12:24:37-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1154340, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014800/a014805/TRACERSbeauty_Iowa_4K_ProRes.00001_print.jpg", "filename": "TRACERSbeauty_Iowa_4K_ProRes.00001_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Beauty Pass – 4KCredit: University of Iowa / Andy Kale", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 14683, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14683/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA, NOAA Announce That the Sun Has Reached the Solar Maximum Period", "description": "In a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), and the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel announced the Sun has reached its solar maximum period.The solar cycle is the natural cycle of the Sun as it transitions between low and high activity. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip — on Earth, that’d be like the North and South Poles swapping places every decade — and the Sun transitions from sluggish to active and stormy.During the most active part of the cycle, known as solar maximum, the Sun can unleash immense explosions of light, energy, and solar radiation — all of which create conditions known as space weather. Space weather can affect satellites and astronauts in space, as well as communications systems — such as radio and GPS — and power grids on Earth. When the Sun is most active, space weather events become more frequent. Solar activity, such as the storm in May 2024, has led to increased aurora visibility and impacts on satellites and infrastructure in recent months.Listen to the media telecon.Read NASA's article about the news. || ", "release_date": "2024-10-15T13:30:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-02-28T14:02:15.113776-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 1098353, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014600/a014683/001_Sun_Comparison.00001_print.jpg", "filename": "001_Sun_Comparison.00001_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "1. VideoImages from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory highlight the appearance of the Sun at solar minimum (left, Dec. 2019) versus solar maximum (right, May 2024). These images are in the 171 wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, which reveals the active regions on the Sun that are more common during solar maximum.Credit: NASA/SDO ", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 5193, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5193/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "Geomagnetic Storm Causes Satellite Loss", "description": "In February 2022, a Coronal Mass Ejection led to 38 commercial satellites being lost. Solar plasma from a geomagnetic storm heated the atmosphere, causing denser gases to expand into the satellites’ orbit, which increased atmospheric drag on the satellites and caused them to de-orbit. Johns Hopkins APL-led Center for Geospace Storms (CGS) is building a Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) supercomputer model to predict space weather. The physics-based MAGE simulation reproduced the storm-time atmospheric density enhancement much better than empirical or standalone ionosphere-thermosphere models, emphasizing the need for fully-coupled whole-of-geospace models for predicting space weather events. || ", "release_date": "2023-12-11T09:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-05-13T14:44:14.429234-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1087820, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005100/a005193/multiField_11-30-2023a_magnetosphere_anim_3x3Hyperwall.01500_print.jpg", "filename": "multiField_11-30-2023a_magnetosphere_anim_3x3Hyperwall.01500_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This animation demonstrates the Earth’s magnetosphere being hit by a geomagnetic storm on February 3, 2020, simulated by MAGE during the storm that caused the loss of commercial satellites.The green current density shows where magnetic current is strong. Lines tracing out the magnetic field are purple in regions of weaker magnetism, and orange-yellow where the magnetic field is strongest. Blue tracers in the velocity field represent the solar wind, and they have been calibrated to appear brightest when they are moving toward the Earth.Credit:NASA Scientific Visualization Studio and NASA DRIVE Science Center for Geospace Storms", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 13506, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13506/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Solar Wind Interacting with Earth's Magnetic Field", "description": "A conceptual animation showing solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field and causing atmospheric loss at the polar cusps. || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [77.5 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [74.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_web.png (320x180) [74.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_thm.png (80x40) [6.3 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [43.1 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [32.8 MB] || TWITTER_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [5.7 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_facebook_720.webm (1280x720) [3.0 MB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_prores_b-roll.mov (1280x720) [227.8 MB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [187.6 MB] || 13506_Atmospheric_Escape_Prores.mov (3840x2160) [2.4 GB] || ", "release_date": "2019-12-20T17:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:45:18.835555-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 388639, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013500/a013506/YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.00001_print.jpg", "filename": "YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.00001_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A conceptual animation showing Earth's polar cusps and the cusp aurora. ", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 20297, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20297/", "page_type": "Animation", "title": "Magnetospheres of our Solar System", "description": "A magnetosphere is the magnetic field shields a planet against the Sun's dangerous radiation. Not all magnetospheres are alike. This animation depicts the unique magnetospheres around Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. To demonstrate their strength, each planet's magnetosphere receives a direct hit from a coronal mass ejection (CME) - a cloud of dense radiation and magnetic field from the Sun. The impact of the CME on the planet depends on the strength of the magnetosphere. On Mars, the magnetosphere is weak and patchy, resulting in some loss of the planet's atmosphere. At Earth, the magnetosphere acts as a buffer, deforming from the impact, but protecting the planet. For Jupiter, the punch of the CME is barely felt by the massive magnetic field. || ", "release_date": "2019-09-16T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:45:38.848251-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 392915, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a020000/a020200/a020297/H_0219_VC_Animation_Full.00600_print.jpg", "filename": "H_0219_VC_Animation_Full.00600_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Animation of a coronal mass ejection impacting Mars, Earth, and Jupiter. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Bailee DesRocher", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 13003, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13003/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Parker Solar Probe Science Briefing - Visual Resources", "description": "July 20, 2018 - Live from NASA Kennedy - 1:00 p.m. ESTHosted by Karen Fox - Heliophysics Communications Lead, NASA Goddard/NASA HQSpeakers:Nicola Fox - Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics LabAlex Young - Solar Scientist from NASA GoddardThomas Zurbuchen - Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASABetsy Congdon - Thermal Protection System Engineer at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab || ", "release_date": "2018-07-20T12:30:00-04:00", "update_date": "2021-02-11T08:54:08-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 402024, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a013000/a013003/sensors.00020_print.jpg", "filename": "sensors.00020_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Graphic identifying the solar limb sensors on Parker Solar Probe. The sensors help the spacecraft stay oriented behind its protective shield. Credit: NASA/APL", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } }, { "id": 20192, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20192/", "page_type": "Animation", "title": "Space Weather", "description": "This movie takes us on a space weather journey from the center of the sun to solar eruptions in the sun's atmosphere all the way to the effects of that activity near Earth. The view starts in the core of the sun where atoms fuse together to create light and energy. Next we travel toward the sun's surface, watching loops of magnetic fields rise up to break through the sun's atmosphere, the corona. In the corona is where we witness giant bursts of radiation and energy known as solar flares, as well as gigantic eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections or CMEs. The movie follows one of these CME's toward Earth where it impacts and compresses Earth's own protective magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere. As energy and particles from the sun funnel along magnetic field lines near Earth, they ultimately produce aurora at Earth's poles. || ", "release_date": "2012-09-20T00:01:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-06-23T00:18:22.563282-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 472119, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a020000/a020100/a020192/SBP01Shot01_03_01000_print.jpg", "filename": "SBP01Shot01_03_01000_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Fusion", "width": 1024, "height": 384, "pixels": 393216 } }, { "id": 3902, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3902/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "A Coronal Mass Ejection strikes the Earth!", "description": "Energetic events on the Sun have impacts throughout the Solar System. This visualization, developed for the Dynamic Earth dome show, utilizes data from space weather models based on a real coronal mass ejection (CME) event from mid-December 2003. Particles are used to represent the flow of solar material from the Sun around the Earth. It is important to note that the flowing material of the CME are actually ions and electrons far too small to see. This visualization tries to represent the motions of these tiny particles in a form large enough for us to see. We open with a close-up view of the Earth, the particles representing the solar wind streaming around the Earth due to extended influence of the Earth's magnetic field. We pull out from the Earth and move so that we see the Sun in the distance. The enormous density enhancement in the solar wind is the coronal mass ejection. As the CME reaches the Earth, we see how effective the Earth's magnetic field is at diverting the solar material around the Earth. As the CME passes, we move earthward, and reveal the field lines representing the Earth's magnetic field, emanating from the magnetic poles and blown behind the Earth due to the influence of the solar wind. For simplicity, we have represented the Earth's magnetic field as unchanging, but it is actually very dynamic in its response to a CME or other change in the solar wind. || ", "release_date": "2012-01-24T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:19.014318-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 485540, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003902/cme.00600_web.png", "filename": "cme.00600_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This movie shows the particle flow around the Earth as the CME strikes.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 20101, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20101/", "page_type": "Animation", "title": "Magnetic Reconnection 2", "description": "This is an update to an older magnetic reconnection animation (10072). The ionized wind from the Sun generates reconnection in the Earth's magnetic field. Particles leak in from the rediation belts producing the auroras. || ", "release_date": "2007-04-06T00:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:55:43.540777-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 508929, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a020000/a020100/a020101/reconL090500897_print.jpg", "filename": "reconL090500897_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "3-D Anaglyph Reconnection animation", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } ], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }