Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE)

Context- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to launch an Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) that will study the interaction between Earth and space weather.

Space Weather

• It describes the change in the space environment between the sun and the earth. 
• It is created by activity on the surface of the Sun. 
• Space weather directly affects critical facilities on Earth, such as satellite-based communications, radio communications, and spacecraft orbits or stations, affecting the smooth operation of  navigation and global positioning systems (GPS) and power grids. . 
• NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) studies atmospheric gravitational waves to understand the flow of energy through the Earth’s upper atmosphere and into space.  

What is a gravitational wave? 

• There are several types of waves in the atmosphere that travel both horizontally and vertically. 
• Atmospheric gravity waves (AGW) are one such vertical wave. 
• They are most often caused by extreme weather or a sudden disturbance that results in a vertical displacement of stable air.  
• 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 creates a force that pushes this air back to its original position. 
• The air rises and falls continuously, creating a wave-like pattern.  

What is the Atmospheric Wave Experiment (AWE)? 

• AWE was created as part of NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers program to study the connections between how waves in the lower atmosphere affect the upper atmosphere and thus space weather.  
• It will be launched and installed on the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting outside the Earth. 
• From the vantage point, it looks down on Earth and catches the colorful streaks of light  commonly known as skyglow. 
• AWE measures the air brightness during the mesopause (about 85-87 km above the ground), when the air temperature drops to minus 100 degrees Celsius. 

How does AWE work?

• AWE performs targeted mapping of colored airglow in the Earth’s atmosphere. AWE’s Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (ATMT) scans or maps the mesopause.  
• Using four identical telescopes containing an imaging radiometer, the brightness of light at specific wavelengths is obtained.  
• The data can then be converted into a temperature map, which can reveal the  movement of the atmosphere and ultimately provide clues about its role in the upper atmosphere and space weather.

What is an airglow?

• It is the weak luminescence of the upper atmosphere of the Earth, caused by the selective absorption of the ultraviolet and X-rays of the sun by air molecules and atoms. 
• Most of the aurora comes from an area between about 50 and 300 km above the ground, with the brightest area concentrated at about 97 km.

Source: Indian Express

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