On September 26, 2024, as Hurricane Helene battered Florida’s Gulf Coast, it produced vital storm surges, impacting quite a few communities throughout the area. Throughout this excessive climate occasion, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE), stationed aboard the Worldwide House Station, noticed gravity waves within the ambiance roughly 55 miles above Earth’s floor. This information, gathered as a part of NASA’s examine on house climate, goals to make clear how terrestrial climate impacts technological methods equivalent to satellites and communication networks.
Observations from NASA’s AWE Instrument
Because the Worldwide House Station crossed the southeastern United States, the AWE instrument recorded massive concentric waves within the ambiance, originating from the extraordinary circumstances stirred by Hurricane Helene. These gravity waves, which seem as artificially colored bands in purple, yellow, and blue, depicted modifications in radiance throughout the Earth’s mesosphere. The imagery, enhanced with color to spotlight infrared brightness variations brought on by airglow, captured waves stretching westward from northern Florida.
Significance of Atmospheric Gravity Waves
In accordance with Ludger Scherliess, Principal Investigator of NASA’s AWE at Utah State College, the waves resemble the ripples produced when a pebble hits the floor of a pond. The instrument, launched in November 2023, was designed to determine these atmospheric disturbances, which embrace storms, hurricanes, and different violent climate occasions that trigger gravity waves. The evaluation of such atmospheric modifications, produced throughout turbulent climate, offers important insights into how terrestrial occasions affect circumstances in house.
Analysis Implications for NASA
The gravity waves from Hurricane Helene are among the many first photographs launched to the general public by the AWE mission. By these observations, NASA seeks to know how Earth’s climate methods impression the higher ambiance and house climate. The AWE instrument’s skill to detect these disturbances contributes to ongoing analysis, enhancing NASA’s efforts to evaluate the potential disruptions to Earth-orbiting methods.
