Image Caption: Since 2008, NASAs two TWINS spacecraft have been providing a stereoscopic view of the ring current -- a hula hoop of charged particles that encircles Earth. Credit: J. Goldstein/SWRI

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This month marks the fifth anniversary of NASAs Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) missions, which are stereoscopically imaging the mysterious and dynamic region surrounding Earth known as the magnetosphere, the US space agency announced on Saturday.

The TWINS A & B probes were launched on June 15, 2008, and according to NASA, since that time they have been orbiting in widely separated planes so that they can enable the three-dimensional visualization and the resolution of large scale structures and dynamics within the magnetosphere for the first time.

The magnetosphere itself is governed by magnetic and electric forces, incoming energy and material from the sun, and a vast zoo of waves and processes unlike what is normally experienced in Earth-bound physics, the agency explained in a statement. Nestled inside this constantly changing magnetic bubble lies a donut of charged particles generally aligned with Earths equator.

That region is known as the ring current, and NASA said its waxing and waning is a key part of the space weather that surrounds the Earth. The ring current can induce magnetic fluctuations on the ground as well as transmit disruptive surface charges onto spacecraft, and part of the TWINS mission has been to provide the first and currently only stereo view of this portion of the magnetosphere.

During its five years of operation, the TWINS satellites have successfully provided 3D images and global characterization of this region, NASA said. The probes have been tracking how the magnetosphere responds to space weather storms.

They have also been able to characterize global information such as the temperature and the shape of various structures within this outer layer of the ionosphere, and have helped enhance magnetosphere models which can be used to create simulations of a plethora of different events.

With two satellites, with two sets of simultaneous images we can see things that are entirely new, said Mei-Ching Fok, the project scientist for TWINS at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. This is the first ever stereoscopic energetic neutral atom mission, and its changed the way we understand the ring current.

Weve done some fantastic new research in the last five years, added David McComas, the principal investigator for TWINS at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. As a mission of opportunity, it is a very inexpensive mission and it continues to return incredible science.

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NASA Marks Fifth Anniversary Of TWINS Mission