Princeton Center for Heliophysics Seminar

The TRACERS mission consists of two identically instrumented satellites in the same low-Earth, sun-synchronous orbit with the spacecraft separated by 10-120s along the orbital track. The mission was selected for implementation  in June, 2019 by NASA as a Small Explorer class investigation.

The overarching mission goal of the TRACERS mission is: Connecting the magnetospheric cusp to the magnetopause – discovering how spatial or temporal variations in magnetic reconnection drive cusp dynamics. 

To address this goal, the TRACERS mission has three major scientific objectives:

• Determine whether magnetopause reconnection is primarily spatially or temporally   variable for a range of solar  wind conditions.
• For temporally varying reconnection, determine how the reconnection rate evolves.
• Determine to what extent dynamic structures in the cusp are associated with temporal versus spatial reconnection.

To accomplish this scientific research, TRACERS makes field and particle observations in the cusp in a Sun Synchronous Orbit at 500 km. Statistical analysis of the orbit shows that TRACERS will have more than 3250 cusp encounters in a one year mission lifetime.  Well-proven instruments and good understanding of orbital characteristics allows for simple mission operations coupled with  proven data analysis techniques backed by high-fidelity simulations.  The instrumentation consists of ion and electron spectrometers, DC electric and magnetic field and AC wave measurements. We discuss the mission concept and relevance to space weather as well as presenting details of the spacecraft instruments, engineering challenges, and operational plan.