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On Jan. 27, the three spacecraft of NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where they will undergo final preparations for launch. The EZIE mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than March as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission with SpaceX via launch integrator Maverick Space Systems.

After lifting off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg, EZIE’s three CubeSats will fly in formation around Earth to map the auroral electrojets, electric currents that flow in the upper atmosphere near Earth’s polar regions when auroras glow in the sky.

The mission will help better understand the connection between the Sun and Earth, as well as improve predictions of hazardous space weather that can affect our technological society.

The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, leads the mission for NASA. Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram, which will map the electrojets, for each of the three satellites.

Read more from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

In 2025, NASA will launch its first mission to image the magnetic fingerprint of intense electrical currents that flow high in our atmosphere when auroras shimmer above Earth’s poles.

The EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission is designed to make groundbreaking measurements of the auroral electrojets, electrical currents about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground in a layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere, which separates Earth from surrounding space.

The mission features a trio of CubeSats, or small satellites, with an orbit that goes pole to pole to map the electrojets. Mapping the electrojets can give scientists greater insight into the physics of Earth’s magnetosphere and help create better models for predicting the effects of space weather phenomena such as geomagnetic storms and auroras in the upper atmosphere and at Earth’s surface.

In August, the EZIE team completed its pre-ship review, with NASA confirming that the three spacecraft and their support systems are ready to move to their eventual launch site for liftoff in 2025.

Previously planned for no earlier than 2024, a launch in 2025 gives EZIE the opportunity to make observations during two Northern Hemisphere summers, when EZIE’s measurements can best be coordinated with ground-based instruments and when EZIE can make far more observations of the auroral phenomenon scientists are targeting.

The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory designed the EZIE spacecraft and leads and manages the mission for NASA. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built an instrument called the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram for each of the three satellites, and Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats.

On March 23, 2023, NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) successfully passed its critical design review, marking a major milestone for the project and keeping it on pace for a scheduled launch next year.

EZIE will provide never before seen imaging of the electrical currents that link our planet and the surrounding space.

“We are excited for what we will learn from EZIE,” said Peg Luce acting director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission will deepen our knowledge of the Sun-Earth connection and help us better understand the electrical currents that link beautiful aurora to Earth’s magnetosphere. This is critical because the same space weather phenomena that power the amazing aurora can cause interference with radio and communication signals and utility grids on Earth’s surface, and damage to spacecraft in orbit.”

EZIE is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. EZIE is led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed and will build and manage the mission, in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Blue Canyon Technologies.

By Denise Hill
NASA Headquarters, Washington

After rigorous review, NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission – a mission to study electrical currents in Earth’s upper atmosphere – passed a key developmental milestone, pushing the mission from the design phase to the construction phase.

EZIE will study the auroral electrojets — intense electrical currents flowing about 65 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground in a layer of Earth’s atmosphere rich in charged atoms, or ions, called the ionosphere. These electrojets are closely related to the spectacular auroras that dance across the polar night skies. They’re part of a vast electrical circuit flowing between Earth and the surrounding space, out to some 100,000 miles away. EZIE’s findings will help solve decades-old debates about the electrojets’ structure and evolution and, in turn, will open the door to a more complete understanding of Earth’s space weather — magnetic events in space that can affect our ever increasingly technological society.

Launching no earlier than September 2024, EZIE will fly three identical CubeSats that will orbit the globe in a pearls-on-a-string formation. Each spacecraft will measure the electrojet current by imaging their “fingerprint.” The spacecraft will look at light being emitted from oxygen molecules below the electrojets at just 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface. The spacecraft will do this by exploring a phenomenon called Zeeman splitting, which is the splitting of a molecule’s light spectrum when placed near a magnetic field. Doing this means they can derive the magnetic field created by the electrojets as they flow and, in turn, detect the electrojets’ current. This new application of the Zeeman effect will allow scientists to infer the magnetic field produced by an electrojet current in the overlying ionosphere and, in turn, learn how the size and strength of these electrojets change when solar storms impact the magnetosphere.

Funding for EZIE comes from the Heliophysics Explorers Program, managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The principal investigator for the mission is Jeng-Hwa (Sam) Yee of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will build the satellite instruments. Blue Canyon Technologies will provide the spacecraft and mission operations center, and it will perform systems integration and testing as well as mission operations. Maverick Space Systems will provide launch and deployment operations.

By Vanessa Thomas 
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.