NASA's AWE Mission Reveals Earth's Influence on Space Weather
NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) has concluded its successful mission, providing unprecedented insights into how Earth's atmosphere impacts space weather. The mission, which exceeded its planned two-year duration, officially ended on May 21 with ground controllers powering down the AWE instrument.
Installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2023, AWE focused on studying atmospheric gravity waves. These waves are essentially giant ripples in the atmosphere, generated by phenomena like strong winds over mountains or severe weather events such as thunderstorms and hurricanes. AWE's observations are crucial for understanding and predicting space weather, which can affect satellites, navigation systems, and communication signals.
Key Findings and Observations
AWE's primary objective was to investigate how atmospheric gravity waves propagate upwards into space and their subsequent contribution to space weather. The instrument achieved this by observing colorful bands of light in Earth's atmosphere known as airglow.
Joe Westlake, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, emphasized the mission's significance: "The AWE mission has proven that our atmosphere is not a ceiling, but a living, breathing ocean in the sky. For the first time, we can see how a thunderstorm in the Midwest, a hurricane over Florida, or a wind gust over the Andes sends invisible ripples – atmospheric gravity waves – crashing into the edge of space."
During its 30-month operation, AWE captured an impressive amount of data:
- More than 80 million nighttime images
- Four infrared images captured every second
- Observations of atmospheric gravity waves from numerous extreme weather events
Notable Weather Events Studied
AWE successfully tracked atmospheric wave signatures from significant terrestrial events, providing clear examples of how intense weather systems can generate measurable upper-atmospheric responses. Two prominent events include:
- A tornado outbreak across the central U.S. in May 2024
- Hurricane Helene impacting the gulf coast of Florida in September 2024
Ludger Scherliess, AWE’s principal investigator from Utah State University, noted that different types of storms create variations in atmospheric gravity waves. For instance, gravity waves generated by a thunderstorm in north Texas on May 26, 2024, were smaller and more irregular compared to waves from storms earlier that month.
Impact on Space Weather and Communications
Understanding the variations in plasma density in Earth’s upper atmosphere, influenced by atmospheric gravity waves, is critical. These variations can disrupt radio signals between satellites and ground stations, impacting the accuracy of navigation, timing, and communication systems.
A recent study using AWE measurements revealed that gravity waves with small horizontal wavelengths (30 to 300 kilometers) have the most significant influence on the upper atmosphere – a key focus of AWE's design.
Future Research and Data Availability
While AWE's data-collection phase is complete, its observations will remain accessible to the public and scientific community for ongoing research. Interactive, online visualizations are available on Utah State University’s website, allowing users to explore atmospheric gravity waves from various angles.
Transition to CLARREO Pathfinder
With AWE's mission concluded, the instrument has been powered down to make way for the CLARREO Pathfinder (Calibration Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder). This new instrument will measure sunlight reflected by Earth and the Moon with significantly higher accuracy than existing sensors.
The removal of AWE will be carried out by the space station's robotic arm, Canadarm2. The AWE instrument will then be loaded into a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, which will deorbit and burn up upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
The AWE mission, launched on Nov. 9, 2023, was managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory built the AWE instrument and provided mission operations.
For more information, listen to episode 334 of NASA’s Houston We Have a Podcast.
By Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.