Atmospheric Waves Experiment

The Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) is a NASA instrument to be mounted on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) for the study of atmospheric gravity waves (not to be confused with astrophysical gravitational waves).

AWE was built by the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory, and the mission is led by Michael Taylor of Utah State University. NASA selected AWE as an Explorers Program Mission of Opportunity in February 2019. The SpaceX 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 the Cargo Dragon by the Dextre robotic arm and attached to one of the station's Express Payload Adapter (ExPA), ELC-1 Site 3. 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 by reentering Earth's atmosphere to burn up.

Mission
In Earth's atmosphere, differences in air density cause atmospheric gravity 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 or space weather. Space weather is known for causing interference in satellite and communication signals, including GPS navigation. Thus, an understanding of AGWs and how they interact with space weather may contribute to improving the forecast of radio interference.

When AGWs are in the realm of the atmosphere called the mesopause, they produce light, a phenomenon known as airglow. AWE will observe this airglow in infrared, with its location at the ISS allowing global coverage.

Instrument
AWE will be NASA's first instrument dedicated to heliophysics on the ISS. The AWE mission's hardware is the Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM), which consists of four identical radiometer telescopes assembly. Each telescope has an InGaAs detector array on its focal plane.