Plasma is rare on Earth, but it fills the sky. To more deeply understand this state of matter that makes up 99% of the visible universe, NASA's HelioSwarm mission will deploy a "swarm" of spacecraft to gather data. UArizona assistant professor Kristopher Klein will serve as the mission's deputy principal investigator.
NASA selects Johns Hopkins APL space weather mission for 2024 launch
The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer will study the auroral electrojet, electrical currents flowing 60-90 miles above the north and south poles By Geoff Brown / Published Jan 8, 2021
A Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory-led mission to explore electric currents in Earth s atmosphere that link the aurora to our planet s magnetosphere has been selected by NASA to move forward to a scheduled launch in 2024.
The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, EZIE, is a set of three small spacecraft that will study the auroral electrojet, which are electrical currents flowing about 60 to 90 miles above the poles that link the beautiful aurora to the Earth s magnetosphere, and which responds to solar activity and other drivers.