Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE)

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is set to launch the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) to study one of the important drivers of Space weather – the Earth’s weather.

ABOUT ATMOSPHERIC WAVES EXPERIMENT (AWE)

• AWE is a first-of-its-kind NASA experimental attempt aimed at studying the interactions between terrestrial and Space weather.
• Planned under NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program, the $42 million mission will study the links between how waves in the lower layers of the atmosphere impact the upper atmosphere, and thus, Space weather.
• AWE will be launched and mounted on the exterior of the Earth-orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
• From the vantage point, it will look down at the Earth and record the colourful light bands, commonly known as airglow.

ABOUT ATMOSPHERIC GRAVITY WAVES

• Just like there is weather on the Earth, the environment around the Earth and the other planets remains constantly under the influence of the Sun and its behaviours – solar flares and emissions, along with the kinds of prevailing matter in the Space surroundings.
• In the atmosphere, there are a wide variety of waves, travelling both horizontally and vertically. Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGW) are one such kind of vertical wave.
• They are mostly generated when there is an extreme weather event or a sudden disturbance leading to a vertical displacement of stable air.
• Natural phenomena like thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, regional orography and others have the potential to send out a variety of periodic waves, including AGWs, in the lower levels of the atmosphere.
• A stable atmosphere plays an important role in the generation of gravity waves, that is, when the atmosphere is stable, the temperature difference between the rising air and the atmosphere produces a force that pushes this air to its original position.
• The air will continuously rise and sink, thus creating a wave-like pattern.
• AGW is a wave that moves through a stable layer of the atmosphere, wherein the upward-moving region is the most favourable for the formation of cloud patterns or streaks.
• AGWs continue all the way to Space, where they contribute to the Space weather.