Banner image credit: Millennium Space Systems

The TRACERS instruments were chosen specifically to help us understand the local plasma environment. This requires a combination of accurate and sensitive charged particle and electric and magnetic field measurements with high temporal resolution, and two-spacecraft measurement capability to distinguish between spatial and temporal variability.
 

A rendering of one of the satellites, with the spacecraft shown as mostly transparent and instruments labeled

 

The instruments

(photos are not to scale)

 

Photo of the ACE instrument

ACE

The Analyzer for Cusp Electrons measures the electron portion of local plasma and how they move with respect to the background magnetic field (energy-pitch angle distribution).

Instrument provided by University of Iowa.

ACE Principal Investigator: Jasper S. Halekas, PhD

 

A photo of the ACI instrument

ACI

The Analyzer for Cusp Ions measures the ion portion of local plasma and how they move with respect to the background magnetic field (energy-pitch angle distribution).

 

Instrument provided by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).

ACI Principal Investigator: Stephen Fuselier, PhD

 

EFI

A photo of the EFI instrument's stacer component

The 2-axis Electric Field Instrument measures the electric field perpendicular to the background magnetic field, used to compute the plasma flow (E×B flow velocity), and measures higher frequency plasma waves.

Instrument provided by the University of California, Berkeley (UCB).

EFI Principal Investigator: John Bonnell, PhD

 

A photo of the MAG instrument

MAG

The 3-axis fluxgate MAGnetometer measures the background magnetic field of plasma. It can also be used to infer the presence of electrical currents and low frequency plasma waves.

 

Instrument provided by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

MAG Principal Investigator: Robert Strangeway, PhD

 

 

A photo of the MSC instrument

MSC

The 3-axis Magnetic Search Coil measures high frequency magnetic waves.

Instrument provided by the University of Iowa.

MSC Principal Investigator: George Hospodarsky, PhD

 

MAGIC

A photo of the MAGIC instrument.

The MAGnetometers for Innovation and Capability team is building fluxgate magnetometers from scratch and investigating new designs. As a technology demonstration on TRACERS, MAGIC must do no harm to the other instruments while testing its designs for future space missions.

Instruments provided by the University of Iowa.

MAGIC Principal Investigator: David M. Miles, PhD

 

MEB

The common Main Electronics Box hosts the electronics for EFI, MSC, and MAG.

A photo of the MEB

MEB includes:

  • Low Voltage Power Supply (LVPS), provided by the University of Iowa.
  • Central Data Processing Unit (CDPU) that manages all the commanding and data handling for the entire instrument suite. The CDPU is provided by the University of New Hampshire.

 

 

A graphic showing one of the TRACERS spacecraft in stowed configuration with some elements removed to better show the instruments. Each instrument is also shown individually with arrows pointing to their location on the spacecraft.
TRACERS meatball logo is circular image with the two TRACERS satellites above Earth. Magnetic field lines from the Sun and Earth are shown, with a star burst where they connect. Around the outside of the circular logo are the words Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, University of Iowa, and NASA. TRACERS, in large text, spans the bottom of the logo.