Lifeboat Foundation

Using NASA ’s MMS mission data, SwRI explores unusual substorm events in Earth’s magnetotail to better understand magnetic reconnection and its effects on the global magnetosphere.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is investigating an unusual event in the Earth’s magnetotail, the elongated extension of the planet’s magnetosphere trailing away from the Sun. SwRI scientists are examining the nature of substorms, fleeting disturbances in the magnetotail that release energy and often cause aurorae, using data from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission.