TheAtmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) is aNASA instrument to be mounted on the exterior of theInternational Space Station (ISS) for the study of atmosphericgravity waves (not to be confused with astrophysicalgravitational waves).
AWE was built by theUtah State UniversitySpace Dynamics Laboratory, and the mission is led by Michael Taylor of Utah State University.[1] NASA selected AWE as anExplorers Program Mission of Opportunity in February 2019.[2][3] TheSpaceX CRS-29 spacecraft carrying AWE was successfully launched on 10 November 2023. Once at the ISS, AWE will be extracted from the trunk section of theCargo Dragon by theDextre robotic arm and attached to one of the station's Express Payload Adapter (ExPA),ELC-1 Site 3.[4] After two years of observation at the ISS, AWE will be removed from the station and jettisoned to space, where it will be disposed of byreentering Earth's atmosphere to burn up.[5]
InEarth's atmosphere, differences in air density cause atmosphericgravity waves (AGWs). These AGWS are notable for traveling upward through the atmosphere carrying energy, eventually reaching space where they are hypothesized to affect the plasma environment surrounding Earth orspace weather. Space weather is known for causing interference in satellite and communication signals, includingGPS navigation. Thus, an understanding of AGWs and how they interact with space weather may contribute to improving the forecast of radio interference.[6]
When AGWs are in the realm of the atmosphere called themesopause, they produce light, a phenomenon known asairglow. AWE will observe this airglow in infrared, with its location at the ISS allowing global coverage.[1]
AWE will be NASA's first instrument dedicated to heliophysics on the ISS.[7] The AWE mission's hardware is the Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM), which consists of four identicalradiometer telescopes assembly. Each telescope has anInGaAs detector array on itsfocal plane.[8]
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