EZIE Launches on Mission to Study Earth’s Electrojets

Under the nighttime California sky, NASA’s Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, taking off at 11:43 p.m. PDT on March 14 from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, California.

The EZIE mission’s trio of small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string configuration approximately 260 to 370 miles (420 to 590 kilometers) above Earth’s surface to map the auroral electrojets. These electrojets, powerful electric currents, flow in Earth’s upper atmosphere in both the northern and southern polar regions and are associated with the spectacular auroras seen from the ground and space.

At approximately 2 a.m. PDT on March 15, the EZIE satellites were successfully deployed. Within the next 10 days, the spacecraft will send signals to verify they’re in good health and ready to embark on their 18-month mission.

“NASA has leaned into small missions that can provide compelling science while accepting more risk. EZIE represents excellent science being executed by an excellent team, and it is delivering exactly what NASA is looking for,” said Jared Leisner, program executive for EZIE at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The electrojets — and their visible counterparts, the auroras — are generated when tremendous amounts of energy get transferred into Earth’s upper atmosphere from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles and other material that flows from the Sun into the solar system. Each of the EZIE spacecraft will map the electrojets, advancing our understanding of the physics of how Earth interacts with its surrounding space. This understanding will apply not only to our own planet but also to any magnetized planet in our solar system and beyond. The mission will also help scientists create models for predicting space weather to mitigate its disruptive impacts on our society.

“It is truly incredible to see our spacecraft flying and making critical measurements, marking the start of an exciting new chapter for the EZIE mission,” said Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, project manager for EZIE at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. “I am very proud of the dedication and hard work of our team. We delivered exactly what we promised in our proposal, on schedule and within cost. This achievement is a testament to the team’s perseverance and expertise, and I look forward to the valuable insights EZIE will bring to our understanding of Earth’s electrojets and space weather.”

Instead of using propulsion to control their polar orbit, the spacecraft will actively use drag experienced while flying through the upper atmosphere to individually tune their spacing. Each successive spacecraft will fly over the same region 2 to 10 minutes after the former.

“The EZIE team has done an exceptional job leading a mission that will deliver valuable data on Earth’s electrojets and shape our understanding of heliophysics and space weather,” said Bobby Braun, head of the Space Exploration Sector at APL. “With Blue Canyon and JPL, EZIE has been an amazing partnership and a great example of what NASA, U.S. industry and APL can achieve together.”

APL leads the mission for NASA. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California built each satellite’s sole instrument, the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram instrument, and Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, provided the three small spacecraft.

“Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory was Blue Canyon Technologies’ first spacecraft partner, with the RAVAN [Radiometer Assessment using Vertically Aligned Nanotubes] mission that launched in 2016,” said Chris Winslett, general manager for Blue Canyon Technologies. “Nearly a decade later, we’re continuing the strong relationship with APL and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the EZIE mission.”

The mission team is also working to distribute magnetometer kits called EZIE-Mag, which are available to teachers, students and science enthusiasts who want to take their own measurements of the Earth-space electrical current system. EZIE-Mag data will be combined with EZIE measurements made from space to assemble a clear picture of this vast electrical current circuit.

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.