Thu Feb 27 05:10:00 UTC 2025: ## NASA’s EZIE Mission to Map Earth’s Auroral Electrojets Launches in 2025
**Greenbelt, MD** – NASA is preparing for the launch of its Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) mission in March 2025. This innovative mission will utilize a trio of CubeSats to study powerful electrical currents, known as electrojets, that surge through Earth’s upper atmosphere during auroral displays.
The three CubeSats, built by Blue Canyon Technologies, will fly in a unique “pearls-on-a-string” formation, orbiting Earth from pole to pole at an altitude of approximately 350 miles (550 kilometers). Each satellite carries a Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram, developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, designed to map the electrojets located around 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface in the ionosphere.
By observing the electrojets over the same region with a time delay of 2 to 10 minutes between each satellite, EZIE will provide crucial data on their dynamic behavior and evolution. This information will significantly improve models used to predict geomagnetic storms and other space weather events that can disrupt technological systems on Earth.
The mission, funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division and managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory leads the mission. This innovative approach promises valuable insights into the complex relationship between the Sun and Earth’s atmosphere.
First Piper 