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The impression of an artist from the two Tracers room vehicles in orbit with low earth. | Credit: University of Iowa/Andy Kale
A new mission that will blow out for the orbit with low earth will examine magnetic storms on earth and learn more about how to affect our atmosphere and satellites.
The tandem re-connection of the NASA and the Rekonnaissance satellites of the coil electrodynamics or the short tracer represents mission a few satellites that fly in a solar synchronous orbit flies-they always go over the days of the earth-through the polar-cuspen. The humps are essentially two holes in the earth’s magneticosphere, where the field lines dive on the magnetic poles.
If an influx of sun wind particles hits the magnetosphere of the earth, you can overload the magnetic field lines and lead to snapping, separating and then connecting again. As the process is called, the magnetic re -connection can accelerate the loaded particles over the funnel -shaped humps and into our atmosphere, where they collide with molecules and, when a sun tower is intensive enough, create auroral lights.
If Tracers does not prefer to start earlier than at the end of July-to learn more about the magnetic reconnection process and the effects of the room weather on our planet.
“What we will learn from tracers is crucial for understanding and prediction, how energy from our sun not only affects the earth, but also on our spatial and floor-based assets, whether it is GPS or communication signals, power grids, space goods or our astron cars that work in space,” said Joe Westlake, director of the NASA-Heliophyssics department NASA teleconz.
Historically speaking, the problem when investigating the magnetic re -connection was that if a satellite flies through the region of the re -connection and collecting data, there is only a snapshot. Then, about 90 minutes later in the next orbit, you need another snapshot. The region may have changed in this passion, but it is impossible to see from these snapshots why it is different. This could be due to the fact that the system changes itself or the magnetic reconnection coupling process between the sunwind and the magnetosphere of the earth moves around-or maybe it switches on and off.
Earth magnetic field. The humps are located on the poles where the magnetic field lines dive. | Credit: Peter Reid, University of Edinburgh.
“These are fundamental things that we have to understand,” said Tracers’ main sub -search David Miles from the University of Iowa in the same conference call.
Therefore, Tracers is important because there are two satellites that work more in tandem than a single magnetic explorer.
“You will follow each other with a very close separation,” said Miles. “So a spaceship goes through, and within two minutes the second spaceship will come through, and that gives us two tightly distributed measurements.”
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Together, the Twin spaceship measures the magnetic and electrical field strengths in which the magnetic re-connection takes place, as well as the local ions and electrons that are enclosed in the magnetosphere.
“What Tracers will study is how the output of the sun couples on almost earth is spatial,” said Miles. “We would like to understand how the coupling between these systems changes in time and time.”
Tracers will not be alone out there and be able to work with other missions that have already been put into operation, such as the Magnetosphare Multiscale mission of NASA (MMM), which restore the studies of other rooms of other rooms than the low orbit of tracers 590 kilometers above our heads. There are also NASAS polarimeters to standardize the mission of Corona and Heliosphere (Punch) and the Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (Ezie), which both examine both solar-wind interactions with our planet with low earth.
“Tracers joins the brisk current heliophysics missions that actively increase our understanding of the sun, space weather and reducing its effects,” said Westlake.
The 170 million US dollar Tracers will not start earlier than at the end of July on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which will also carry several other small missions in the orbit. The answers that Tracer provide about how magnetic re -connection works enables scientists to better protect the critical infrastructure when solar storms occur.
“It will help us to ensure our way of life here on earth,” said Westlake.
