NASA to Launch Mission to Study Earth’s Mysterious Auroral Electrojets
GREENBELT, Md. – NASA is set to launch its Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission in March 2025 to investigate the powerful electrical currents known as auroral electrojets, which flow high above Earth’s poles. These currents, which can affect technologies and power systems on Earth, have long puzzled scientists.
Each second, the auroral electrojets push approximately one million amps of electrical charge around the polar regions, significantly impacting magnetic fields and potentially causing power outages. The EZIE mission aims to enhance scientific understanding of these phenomena and improve forecasts of hazardous space weather, which could endanger astronauts and disrupt satellite operations.
The mission comprises three CubeSats, each roughly the size of a carry-on suitcase, following a ‘pearls-on-a-string’ formation as they orbit the Earth approximately 350 miles (550 kilometers) overhead. As they pass over the electrojets, which lie around 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface in the ionosphere, the spacecraft will gather data to map the structure and evolution of these electrical currents.
“What EZIE does is unique,” said Larry Kepko, an EZIE mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets, and it does so with a completely new measurement technique.”
The new method involves observing microwave emissions from oxygen molecules located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) below the electrojets. The electrojets create a magnetic field that alters these emissions, a phenomenon known as Zeeman splitting. The greater the magnetic field, the wider the emission line is split. Each CubeSat will be equipped with an instrument called the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram to measure the strength and orientation of the electrojets’ magnetic fields.
Developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, the instrument utilizes four antennas directed at various angles to accurately survey the magnetic fields during EZIE’s orbits.
The electrojets form part of a vast electric circuit extending 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) from Earth into space. Previous studies have documented these fascinating currents, but the overall dynamics of the system remain unclear.
“The utilization of the Zeeman technique to remotely map current-induced magnetic fields is a game-changing approach,” said Sam Yee, the principal investigator for EZIE at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
In a unique initiative, citizen scientists will contribute to the project’s research by utilizing distributed magnetometer kits. Students in the U.S. and volunteers globally will collect magnetic field data on the ground, which will complement the satellite observations. “EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground,” said Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, the EZIE project manager at APL.
The EZIE spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission. The timing of the launch coincides with solar maximum, a phase of heightened solar activity, which will enhance the study of electrojets as they respond directly to solar events.
“It’s better to launch during solar maximum,” Kepko explained. “The electrojets respond directly to solar activity.”
The mission is funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division and managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA Goddard. APL leads the mission while Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, constructed the CubeSats. The EZIE mission represents a milestone in space exploration, demonstrating how advancements in technology allow for cost-effective scientific research.
