Atmospheric Waves Experiment launching to space station to study atmospheric waves via airglow

NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, mission is scheduled to launch to the Worldwide Area Station in November 2023, the place it’ll make use of a pure, ethereal glow in Earth’s sky to review waves in our planet’s environment.

Constructed by Utah State College’s Area Dynamics Laboratory in North Logan, Utah, AWE will likely be mounted on the outside of the space station. From this perch, AWE will stare down towards Earth, monitoring undulations within the air often called atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs).

Primarily originating within the lowest stage of the environment, AGWs could also be brought on by sturdy climate occasions corresponding to tornadoes, hurricanes, and even thunderstorms. These climate occasions can momentarily push pockets of high-density air upwards into the environment earlier than the air sinks again down. This up-and-down bobbing typically leaves behind distinctive ripples patterns within the clouds.

However AGWs proceed all the way in which to space, the place they contribute to what’s often called space weather—the tumultuous alternate of power within the space surrounding our planet that may disrupt satellite and communications indicators. AWE will measure AGWs at an atmospheric layer that begins some 54 miles (87 kilometers) in altitude, often called the mesopause.

“That is the primary time that AGWs, particularly the small-scale ones, will likely be measured globally on the mesopause, the gateway to the space,” mentioned Michael Taylor, professor of physics at Utah State College and principal investigator for the mission. “Extra importantly, that is the primary time we can quantify the impacts of AGWs on space climate.”

On the mesopause, the place AWE will make its measurements, AGWs are revealed by colorful bands of light in our atmosphere often called airglow. AWE will “see” these waves by recording variations of airglow in infrared gentle, a wavelength range too lengthy for human eyes to see. At these altitudes our environment dips to its coldest temperatures—reaching as little as -150° Fahrenheit (-101° Celsius)—and the faint glow of infrared light is at its brightest.

By watching that infrared airglow develop brighter and dimmer as waves transfer via it, AWE will allow scientists to compute the dimensions, energy, and dispersion of AGWs like by no means earlier than. It was additionally designed to see smaller AGWs, detecting short-scale ripples in airglow that earlier missions would miss.

“AWE will have the ability to resolve waves at finer horizontal scales than what satellites can often see at these altitudes, which is a part of what makes the mission distinctive,” mentioned Ruth Lieberman, AWE mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland.

From its vantage level on the space station, AWE’s Superior Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) instrument will scan the mesopause beneath it. AWE’s AMTM consists of 4 equivalent telescopes, which collectively comprise a wide-field-of-view imaging radiometer, an instrument that measures the brightness of sunshine at particular wavelength ranges.

The relative brightness of various wavelengths can be utilized to create temperature maps, which in flip reveal how AGWs are shifting via the environment. It is going to be probably the most thorough research of AGWs and their results on the higher environment ever performed.

As a payload headed to the space station, AWE was required to carry 4 essential security critiques. The mission was efficiently licensed as a station payload at its final evaluate in July 2023. A part of this certification concerned “sharp edge” testing with astronaut gloves to make sure security throughout AWE’s set up and upkeep on the outside of the space station.

AWE is the primary NASA mission to aim one of these science to supply perception into how terrestrial and space climate interactions could have an effect on satellite communications and monitoring in orbit.

Following AWE’s set up on the Worldwide Area Station, the group’s focus will likely be to share the instrument’s knowledge and outcomes with the science neighborhood and the general public.