{ "id": 5555, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5555/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "TRACERS through Earth's Polar Cusps", "description": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) satellites that will explore the process of magnetic reconnection in Earth's polar regions and its effects on our atmosphere.", "release_date": "2025-07-15T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-06-11T09:02:25.323014-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1156281, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080.01320.jpg", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080.01320.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_video": { "id": 1156282, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080_p30.mp4", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080_p30.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 }, "main_credits": {}, "progress": "Complete", "media_groups": [ { "id": 378337, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5555/#media_group_378337", "widget": "Basic text", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "This data visualization shows the orbit of NASA’s twin Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS mission, in pink that will help scientists understand an explosive process called magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere. \r\n\r\nMagnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic fields and particles from the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field. This process results in the funneling of charged particles down toward Earth and our technology along our planet’s magnetic field lines, shown in yellow.\r\n\r\nBy flying through the Earth’s polar cusps – the vulnerable spot in this magnetic shield where the impacts of magnetic reconnection reverberate, shown as a blue “flow” – TRACERS will help scientists better understand this process and prepare for the impacts of solar activity on Earth, such as auroras and disruptions to telecommunications.\r\n\r\nThe two TRACERS spacecraft will take multiple measurements at the polar cusps by flying in rapid succession, less than two minutes apart. As the pair chase each other around Earth, they’ll take a record-breaking 3,000 measurements of magnetic reconnection in the first year alone.\r\n\r\nFor the latest information and media see the [TRACERS media gallery](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/tracers/){:target='_blank'} or the [TRACERS Mission page](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/){:target='_blank'}", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 378326, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5555/#media_group_378326", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites (pink) exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions. The light-blue 'flows' represent the particle currents traveling from the edge of the magnetosphere, through the region of the ionosphere, and back out to the magnetosphere.", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 488188, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": "", "instance": { "id": 1156282, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080_p30.mp4", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080_p30.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 488187, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": "", "instance": { "id": 1156280, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.UHD3840_2160p30.mp4", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.UHD3840_2160p30.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 3840, "height": 2160, "pixels": 8294400 } }, { "id": 488189, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": "", "instance": { "id": 1156283, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/frames/1920x1080_16x9_30fps/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate/", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate", "media_type": "Frames", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 488190, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": "", "instance": { "id": 1156284, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/frames/3840x2160_16x9_30fps/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate/", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate", "media_type": "Frames", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 3840, "height": 2160, "pixels": 8294400 } }, { "id": 488191, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": "", "instance": { "id": 1156281, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a005500/a005555/Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080.01320.jpg", "filename": "Geospace2025.TRACERS-alt.GEI.RE.noslate_CRTT.HD1080.01320.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Visualization of the orbit of the twin TRACERS satellites exploring electricity and magnetism in Earth's polar regions.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "extra_data": {} } ], "studio": "svs", "funding_sources": [ "NASA Heliophysics" ], "credits": [ { "role": "Data visualizer", "people": [ { "name": "Tom Bridgman", "employer": "Global Science and Technology, Inc." } ] }, { "role": "Producer", "people": [ { "name": "Lacey Young", "employer": "eMITS" } ] }, { "role": "Scientist", "people": [ { "name": "John Charles Dorelli", "employer": "NASA/GSFC" }, { "name": "Steve M. Petrinec", "employer": "Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab" } ] }, { "role": "Technical support", "people": [ { "name": "Laurence Schuler", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." }, { "name": "Ian Jones", "employer": "ADNET Systems, Inc." } ] } ], "missions": [ "Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS)" ], "series": [], "tapes": [], "papers": [], "datasets": [ { "name": "", "common_name": "Planning TLEs", "platform": null, "sensor": null, "type": "Ephemeris", "organizations": [ "NASA" ], "description": "TLEs for mission to lauch around 2030", "credit": "Donald Dichmann", "url": "", "date_range": "" } ], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Sun" ], "keywords": [ "Geomagnetic Field", "Geospace", "Heliophysics", "magnetic field", "Magnetic Fields", "Magnetic Fields/magnetic Currents", "Magnetic Reconnection", "Magnetosphere", "Plasma", "Polar Cusp", "Satellite", "Solar Storm", "Solar Wind", "Space Weather", "Sun", "TRACERS" ], "recommended_pages": [], "related": [ { "id": 20404, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20404/", "page_type": "Animation", "title": "TRACERS Science Animations", "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. 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.Learn more about the mission: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/tracers/ || ", "release_date": "2025-06-02T12:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-07-02T13:53:16.455608-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1155490, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a020000/a020400/a020404/TRACERS_S3_A_30fps_4k_proRes.00790_print.jpg", "filename": "TRACERS_S3_A_30fps_4k_proRes.00790_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "In this animation, the TRACERS spacecraft fly by the camera and enter the polar cusp, where the two spacecraft will make more than 3,000 measurements of dayside magnetic reconnection in the first year of the mission. 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 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [ { "id": 14862, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14862/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA’s TRACERS Studies Magnetic Explosions Above Earth", "description": "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/ || ", "release_date": "2025-07-14T11:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2025-06-27T10:39:30.842035-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 1156667, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a014800/a014862/14862_TRACERSoverview_Thumbnail.jpg", "filename": "14862_TRACERSoverview_Thumbnail.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Produced VideoWatch 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 MusicAdditional Video and Animations: University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, Millennium Space Systems, Andøya Space / Trond AbrahamsenSound Effects: Pixabay", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }