THEMIS

THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) is a mission of 5 small NASA satellites whose instruments were designed in collaboration with French laboratories. Themis evolves in the heart of the Earth's magnetosphere with one objective: to study the explosive phenomena at the origin of the polar auroras, called magnetic sub-storms.

The five THEMIS satellites, belonging to the Explorer program, were launched by a Delta II launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, USA, on February 16, 2007. These satellites, positioned in the magnetic tail of our planet, were able to follow, live, the triggering of thousands of sub-storms and the propagation of particles from the solar wind to the poles.

Result: the scientists were able to locate the origin of the phenomenon in a region of the magnetosphere located at a third of the distance which separates the Earth from the Moon.
The satellites are equipped with five instruments, including magnetometers, in which the LPP and IRAP participated.

Access to mission data

Access to mission documents