NASA’s AWE Completes Mission to Study Earth’s Effect on Space Weather

A long-exposure photo taken from the International Space Station shows airglow as bands of green and red curving around Earth. A flash of lightning appears near the bottom. Credits: NASA On May 21, ground controllers powered down NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) instrument, bringing the data collection phase of the mission to a successful and scheduled end, surpassing its planned two-year mission. Installed on the exterior of the International Space Station since November 2023, AWE studied atmospheric gravity waves, which are giant ripples in the atmosphere caused by strong winds flowing over tall mountains or by violent weather events, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hurricanes. The AWE instrument looked for these waves in colorful bands of light in Earth’s atmosphere, called airglow. Funded by NASA’s Heliophysics Division, AWE investigated how atmospheric gravity waves propagate upward to space and contribute to space weather — conditions in space that can disrupt satellites, as well as navigation and communications signals. “The AWE mission has proven that our atmosphere is not a ceiling, but a living, breathing ocean in the sky,” said Joe Westlake, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “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 like waves hitting a shoreline. By mapping these ripples from the International Space Station, we’ve discovered that Earth’s weather doesn’t just end at the clouds, instead it reaches out beyond our planet, shaping the space weather that impacts our orbital economy.” This artist’s conception depicts the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) scanning the atmosphere from aboard the International Space Station, measuring variations in infrared airgl