The Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE)

NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) mission is a Heliophysics Small Explorers Mission of Opportunity designed to investigate how terrestrial weather affects space weather, via small-scale atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) produced in Earth’s atmosphere. Following its launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2023, AWE began a 2-year mission to explore the global distribution of AGWs, study the processes controlling their propagation throughout the upper atmosphere, and estimate their impacts on the ionosphere – thermosphere – mesosphere (ITM) system. The AWE science instrument consists of the Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM) — a wide field-of-view Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) imager that quantifies gravity wave-induced temperature disturbances in the hydroxyl (OH) airglow layer, which lies near the mesopause at ~87 km altitude. The AMTM’s four identical telescopes make continuous nighttime observations of the P₁(2) and P₁(4) emission lines of the OH (3,1) band and the Q₁(1) emission line in the OH (2,0) band, as well as the atmospheric background, from which the OH layer temperature is derived. AWE images are collected once per second, co-added, and processed into temperature swaths using correction algorithms derived from ground calibration test results. Global coverage of the OH layer is provided about every four days, which enables regional and seasonal studies, as well as characterization of AGW ‘hot spots.’ This paper will present an overview of the AWE mission and discuss initial science results.