NASA's EZIE mission, launched in March 2025, is already returning useful data from orbit. It's the first mission to observe auroral electrojets near Earth’s poles closely.
EZIE opens its eye with CubeSats to study Earth’s atmosphere
Photo Credit: NASA
Data revealed from three small satellites make up NASA's mission EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) to unravel the mysteries in the surroundings of the auroral electrojet. Launched from California on March 14, 2025, the three satellites of NASA's EZIE mission have officially begun their journey above the Earth's atmosphere. The early observations coming in are already proving to be incredibly valuable in helping scientists better understand Earth's auroral electrojets, they say. NASA says this is the first mission to study this electrical current in both northern and southern polar regions.
After the launch of NASA's EZIE Mission, these three CubeSats are now orbiting in a pearl-on-a-string form, 260 to 370 miles high from the Earth's surface, to map the auroral electrojets. The EZIE team is excited to see the first light results, said the leader of the team, Sam Yee, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Observations revealed it is clear that the spacecraft and the MEM instrument are both working as per the expectations.
It is known as the Microwave Electroject Magnetogram, which measures the Zeeman splitting phenomenon. This will offer NASA the insight to study the evolution of electrojets with its structure, which has not been done previously.
The Auroral electrojets are created by the massive energy shifted by the solar atmospheric pressure when it hits the atmosphere of the Earth. The electrojets emit an electrical charge of 1 million amps every second around the Earth's magnetic poles. Magnetic disturbances of the Earth are created when these electrojets flow above the ground at around 65 miles. This could be a threat to the safety of astronauts and interfere with the satellites. This is the reason why knowing these electrojets is crucial for scientists.
The mission has been funded by the Heliophysics Division at NASA. EZIE is managed by Goddard Space Flight Centre. A team of researchers will do the final analysis of the observations by EZIE, which will unveil the Earth and Space interlinking.
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