The Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) is a NASA Mission of Opportunity designed to investigate the near-global properties and effects of gravity waves as they propagate into the Earth’s upper atmosphere. In particular, AWE will measure the spectrum of small-scale (~30-300 km) gravity waves (GWs) generated by strong weather disturbances, e.g., convection and sustained flow over mountains, that impact the ionosphere and thermosphere via the mesosphere. An IR 4-channel imaging system built by the Space Dynamic Lab (SDL) at Utah State University (USU) will be deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2023. During two years, the AWE instrument will map the nighttime hydroxyl (OH) layer (~87 km), providing 2D gravity wave (GW) fields in mesospheric temperature and OH band intensity over a 600 km field-of-view, every second. The AWE orbit will cover ~85 % of the earth, between ± 55°. The AWE data will be combined with four state-of-the-art models to achieve the AWE science objectives:· Quantify the seasonal and regional variabilities and influences of GWs near the mesopause, · Identify the dominant dynamical processes controlling GWs observed near the mesopause, · Estimate the wider role of GWs in the Ionosphere-Thermosphere-Mesosphere (ITM).This presentation will give an overview of the AWE mission, update current mission status and describe the AWE data levels using synthetic images.
The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)