The University of Iowa is playing a key role in NASA’s Tandem Reconnection And Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission, which aims to uncover how magnetic reconnection drives dynamic processes in Earth’s cusp region—a critical gateway between the solar wind and our planet’s magnetosphere.

TRACERS will use two identical small satellites flying in tandem low-Earth orbits to collect plasma and magnetic field data over a 12-month primary mission. These measurements will help scientists understand how spatial and temporal variations in reconnection influence cusp behavior.

The mission is a collaborative effort involving the University of Iowa, Southwest Research Institute, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Millennium Space Systems. It is dedicated to the late Professor Craig Kletzing, the mission’s original Principal Investigator and a longtime leader in space plasma research at Iowa.

TRACERS continues the department’s legacy of leadership in space physics and instrumentation, and represents a major step forward in understanding the fundamental processes that shape space weather and Earth’s near-space environment.