First results from NASA's TRACERS suggest magnetic reconnection shifts in space, not time

29 October 2026

NASA has released the first science results from TRACERS, a pair of small spacecraft studying the Earth's magnetic shield.
TRACERS stands for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, and the two spacecraft were launched in 2025.
The results come from the first year of data from the Analyzers for Cusp Ions instruments.
They suggest that magnetic reconnection is largely a spatial process, that is, the place where reconnection happens shifts over time rather than the process itself changing.
Magnetic reconnection is the violent snapping and rejoining of magnetic field lines that drives space weather.
The findings appear in a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
David Miles of the University of Iowa is the mission's principal investigator, and the Southwest Research Institute at San Antonio supports the mission.