Prelims – Importance of national and international importance, General science.
Why in News?
Recently, NASA launched the twin satellite on SpaceX Falcon 9 at Vandenberg Space Force Station in California.
- TRACERS - Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites.
- Aim
- To study the constant stream of solar wind and charged particles flowing from the sun, which interacts with Earth’s magnetosphere.
- It will observe magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere.
- Role - It will measure magnetic reconnection 3,000 times in a year to help scientists observe how quickly reconnection changes and evolves.
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Magnetic Reconnection
- It occurs when material from the Sun interacts with Earth’s magnetic field.
- A reconnection event can shoot solar wind particles, normally diverted around our planet, directly into our atmosphere at high speeds.
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- Orbit - It will be placed in Sun-synchronous orbit.
- Orbiting through Earth’s polar cusp region, funnel-like openings in the magnetic field where the solar wind has a direct path into our atmosphere.
- Mission Duration - The primary science mission is planned for 12 months.
- Instruments - The satellites are equipped with instruments including DC Magnetometers, Search Coil Magnetometers, Electric Field Instruments, and Analyzers for Cusp Electrons and Ions.
Three additional payloads with TRACERS
- Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat - It is designed to demonstrate an innovative, configurable way to put remote-sensing instruments into orbit faster and more affordably.
- PExT (Polylingual Experimental Terminal) - It will showcase new technology that empowers missions to roam between communications networks in space, like cell phones roam between providers on Earth.
- REAL (Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss) CubeSat - It will use space as a laboratory to understand how high-energy particles within the bands of radiation that surround Earth are naturally scattered into the atmosphere.
- Aiding the development of methods for removing these damaging particles to better protect satellites and the critical ground systems they support.
- Significance - Scientists hope to better understand and prepare for impacts of solar activity like interruptions involving communications satellites, GPS systems, and power grids on Earth.
Quick facts
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NASA’s earlier satellites to study the sun
- PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) – It is a constellation of four small satellites making 3D observations to learn about the solar wind
- EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) – It is a set of three small satellites studying electrical currents flowing above the pole.
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References
- Times of India| TRACER – A Twin Satellites
- NASA | TRACER
