The Miles Lab, sponsored by NASA, is restoring and advancing the nation’s capability to make high-fidelity magnetic field measurements needed to investigate space weather that can impact our communication and power grids on Earth and our assets in space.

A study from University of Iowa researchers reveals that the aurora borealis — the northern lights — appear brighter when electromagnetic waves in space interact with particles inside the aurora. Connor Feltman, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa, examined data from two rockets that were launched into the aurora from Andøya, Norway, in 2022, an Iowa-led experiment known as the ACES-II mission.

NASA’s newest mission, TRACERS, soon will begin studying how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather. Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off at 11:13 a.m. PDT (2:13 p.m. EDT) on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The journal Space Science Reviews is publishing a collection of articles about the University of Iowa-led Tandem Reconnection And Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission. This collection presents the science objectives of the mission, descriptions of the design and calibration of the plasma instruments, and other important aspects of the mission.

Researchers led by the University of Iowa have learned more about how Earth’s uppermost atmospheric layer may contribute to aurora, the colorful dance of lights in the skies in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

The inaugural Pathfinder Project, led by University of Iowa Physics and Astronomy researcher David Miles, is among the projects featured in a recent report from NASA’s HEliophysics Strategic Technology Office (HESTO).

Professors Allison Jaynes and David Miles will provide instrumentation for the LabOratory for the Behavior of the SloT Region (LOBSTR) mission. This mission aims to study energetic particles in the slot region, which is the region between Earth’s two radiation belts. The Miles Lab will provide magnetic field instruments.

NASA's HEliophysics Strategic Technology Office (HESTO) selected Prof. David Miles from the University of Iowa and Prof. Wojciech Miloch of the University of Oslo to provide a fluxgate magnetometer for the upcoming Norwegian ICI-5bis sounding rocket mission.

NASA delegates visited the University of Iowa on March 7-8 to learn about the largest externally funded research project in institutional history. The NASA group included Joseph Westlake, the new head of the agency’s heliophysics division, which oversees missions involving the Earth and sun. The heliophysics portfolio includes Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), the $115 million mission being led by Iowa. TRACERS will study interactions between the sun and the Earth that spawn the Northern and Southern lights. Researchers at Iowa and other participating institutions have been designing, building, and assembling the instruments, hardware, and software in preparation for a scheduled launch in April 2025.

Associate Professor David Miles was named Principal Investigator of the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) Mission following the passing of Prof. Craig Kletzing in August 2023.