NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment Completes On-Orbit Data Collection

Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory and USU’s Department of Physics announced NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment has completed the on-orbit data collection phase of its mission. The mission will continue with processing and analyzing images collected during the 30-month on-orbit phase.

At 17:04 Coordinated Universal Time on May 21, NASA and ground operators at SDL gave final approval to power down the AWE instrument, which the operators implemented and placed the instrument in a safe configuration, signaling the end of its on-orbit mission.

SDL built the AWE instrument and manages the mission for NASA, partnering with USU Physics Professor Ludger Scherliess, the mission’s principal investigator, as well as co-investigators and a multidisciplinary engineering team.

AWE is an International Space Station-mounted Heliophysics Mission of Opportunity designed to study atmospheric gravity waves by imaging Earth’s faint airglow and quantifying how energy and momentum propagate from terrestrial weather into the upper atmosphere, where impacts can couple into space weather conditions. The mission builds on the life’s work of late USU professor Michael Tayor, a pioneer in the study of atmospheric gravity waves that included a heritage of more than two decades of airborne observations.

Understanding space weather disturbances is important because conditions in the ionosphere, roughly 50 to 400 miles above Earth’s surface, influence the performance of satellite-based systems. Variations in atmospheric density and ionospheric structure can disrupt radio signals traveling between satellites and the ground, degrading the accuracy and reliability of navigation, communications, and timing services. These effects can impact applications ubiquitous to everyday life, including GPS navigation, aviation operations, telecommunications networks, and timing signals used in financial systems.

“During its initial 24-month mission, we’ve seen atmospheric wave signatures associated with major terrestrial events, including observations tied to Hurricane Helene on September 26, 2024, which provided a clear example of how intense weather systems can generate measurable upper-atmospheric responses,” said Scherliess. “Data from AWE will continue to be made public for both professional researchers and citizen scientists.” Based on initial data releases, more than 50 science presentations have been delivered worldwide, and many scientific papers are in the process of being published.

The AWE instrument launched Nov. 9, 2023, and installation on the ISS exterior was completed shortly afterward. Following installation and activation, AWE achieved first light on Nov. 22, 2023, its first successful acquisition of gravity-wave imagery from its operational vantage point, confirming instrument performance in the space environment and enabling routine data collection.

“The SDL-built AWE instrument has captured more than 80 million nighttime images, when airglow can be seen, from over 14,000 orbits that are providing new insights into how weather phenomena in Earth’s atmosphere interact with the upper atmosphere and space weather,” said AWE Project Manager Russ Kirkham. “SDL has been proud to work with NASA’s Heliophysics Division, Professor Scherliess, and the science team from USU, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of Colorado Boulder, GATS Inc., the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the Naval Research Laboratory to document atmospheric gravity waves from a global vantage point not previously available.”

The AWE payload consists of a single instrument, the Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper, attached to the ISS in a nadir-viewing configuration. The mapper consists of four infrared telescopes which measure emission lines of the hydroxyl (OH) band and the atmospheric background. The mapper has a wide field-of-view that enables data collection of atmospheric gravity waves in the mesopause. AWE measures the temperature disturbances in the OH layer, providing sufficient resolution and precision to measure the size and motion of the waves.

The ISS robotic arm, Canadarm2, will detach the AWE instrument from its location on the station and move it to a temporary location for transfer and disposal. AWE will be loaded into the unpressurized cargo module of a Space-X Dragon spacecraft with other retired station equipment. Once loaded, Dragon will undock from the ISS and perform a deorbit burn, separating the unpressurized portion to reenter Earth’s atmosphere, where AWE will burn up during reentry.

AWE is a Mission of Opportunity under NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program, which conducts innovative, streamlined scientific investigations by developing instrumentation to answer focused science questions that augment and complement the agency’s larger missions. AWE was part of a fleet of heliophysics missions positioned at key places around the solar system, observing space weather from its start at the Sun to its farthest reaches on the very edge of the Sun’s influence, the heliosphere – and key locations in between in space. This information not only teaches us more about our astrophysical neighborhood, but helps protect astronauts and technology in space.

For more information about the AWE mission, visit www.awemission.org.

USU’s Department of Physics is one of 13 academic departments in the College of Arts & Sciences. As part of a land-and space-grant university, the college is a hub where science, humanities, and the arts intersect to provide students with durable skills, hands-on experiences, and a broad academic foundation. The college fosters discovery, supports creativity, and offers academic experiences that prepare students to face future challenges. For more information, visit www.physics.usu.edu.

Headquartered at Utah State University’s Innovation Campus in North Logan, UT, SDL is an independent nonprofit corporation owned by USU that solves technical challenges faced by the military, science community, and industry and supports NASA’s vision to explore the secrets of the universe for the benefit of all. SDL has field offices in Albuquerque, NM; Chantilly, VA; Huntsville, AL; Ogden, UT; and Stafford, VA. For more information, visit www.sdl.usu.edu.

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