Jump to content
Join the Alien Search, login or register FREE on Aliens and Space Forum
Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site

Hurricane Helene’s Gravity Waves Revealed by NASA’s AWE

NASA

By NASA
in NASA

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Publishers
NASA Mentor

NASA

Posted
  • Publishers
Posted

2 min read

Hurricane Helene’s Gravity Waves Revealed by NASA’s AWE

On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread impacts on communities in its path. At the same time, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment, or AWE, recorded enormous swells in the atmosphere that the hurricane produced roughly 55 miles above the ground. Such information helps us better understand how terrestrial weather can affect space weather, part of the research NASA does to understand how our space environment can disrupt satellites, communication signals, and other technology.

As the International Space Station traveled over the southeastern United States on Sept. 26, 2024, AWE observed atmospheric gravity waves generated by Hurricane Helene as the storm slammed into the gulf coast of Florida. The curved bands extending to the northwest of Florida, artificially colored red, yellow, and blue, show changes in brightness (or radiance) in a wavelength of infrared light produced by airglow in Earth’s mesosphere. The small black circles on the continent mark the locations of cities. To download this video or other versions with alternate color schemes, visit this page.
Utah State University

These massive ripples through the upper atmosphere, known as atmospheric gravity waves, appear in AWE’s images as concentric bands (artificially colored here in red, yellow, and blue) extending away from northern Florida.

“Like rings of water spreading from a drop in a pond, circular waves from Helene are seen billowing westward from Florida’s northwest coast,” said Ludger Scherliess, who is the AWE principal investigator at Utah State University in Logan.

Launched in November 2023 and mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, the AWE instrument looks down at Earth, scanning for atmospheric gravity waves, ripple-like patterns in the air generated by atmospheric disturbances such as violent thunderstorms, tornadoes, tsunamis, wind bursts over mountain ranges, and hurricanes. It does this by looking for brightness fluctuations in colorful bands of light called airglow in Earth’s mesosphere. AWE’s study of these gravity waves created by terrestrial weather helps NASA pinpoint how they affect space weather.

These views of gravity waves from Hurricane Helene are among the first publicly released images from AWE, confirming that the instrument has the sensitivity to reveal the impacts hurricanes have on Earth’s upper atmosphere.

By Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

View the full article

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Similar Topics

    • European Space Agency
      New ESA gravity mission to detect weakening ocean conveyor
      By European Space Agency
      At the Living Planet Symposium, attendees have been hearing how ESA’s Next Generation Gravity Mission could provide the first opportunity to directly track a vital ocean circulation system that warms our planet – but is now weakening, risking a possible collapse with far-reaching consequences.
      View the full article
    • NASA
      NASA Langley Uses Height, Gravity to Test Long, Flexible Booms
      By NASA
      2 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Researchers look at a bend that occurred in the 94-foot triangular, rollable and collapsible boom during an off-axis compression test.NASA/David C. Bowman Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, have developed a technique to test long, flexible, composite booms for use in space in such a way that gravity helps, rather than hinders, the process. During a recent test campaign inside a 100-foot tower at a NASA Langley lab, researchers suspended a 94-foot triangular, rollable, and collapsible boom manufactured by Florida-based aerospace company, Redwire, and applied different forces to the boom to see how it would respond. 

      Having a facility tall enough to accommodate vertical testing is advantageous because horizontal tests require extra equipment to keep gravity from bending the long booms, but this extra equipment in turn affects how the boom responds. These mechanical tests are important because NASA and commercial space partners could use long composite booms for several functions including deployable solar sails and deployable structures, such as towers for solar panels, that could support humans living and working on the Moon.  

      Redwire will be able to compare the results of the physical testing at NASA Langley to their own numerical models and get a better understanding of their hardware. NASA’s Game Changing Development program in the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate funded the tests. 

      Researchers conducted the tests inside a 100-foot tower at NASA Langley.NASA/Mark Knopp Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 29, 2025 Related Terms
      Langley Research Center Game Changing Development Program Space Technology Mission Directorate Explore More
      3 min read Autonomous Tritium Micropowered Sensors
      Article 2 days ago 3 min read Addressing Key Challenges To Mapping Sub-cm Orbital Debris in LEO via Plasma Soliton Detection
      Article 2 days ago 3 min read Breathing Beyond Earth: A Reliable Oxygen Production Architecture for Human Space Exploration
      Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      Missions
      Humans in Space
      Climate Change
      Solar System
      View the full article
    • NASA
      How Do We Do Research in Zero Gravity? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 62
      By NASA
      3 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      How do we do research in zero gravity?

      Actually when astronauts do experiments on the International Space Station, for instance, to environment on organisms, that environment is actually technically called microgravity. That is, things feel weightless, but we’re still under the influence of Earth’s gravity.

      Now, the very microgravity that we’re trying to study up there can make experiments actually really kind of difficult for a bunch of different reasons.

      First of all, stuff floats. So losing things in the ISS is a very real possibility. For example,
      there was a set of tomatoes that was harvested in 2022 put it in a bag and it floated away and we couldn’t find it for eight months.

      So to prevent this kind of thing from happening, we use a lot of different methods, such as using enclosed experiment spaces like glove boxes and glove bags. We use a lot of Velcro to stick stuff to.

      Another issue is bubbles in liquids. So, on Earth, bubbles float up, in space they don’t float up, they’ll interfere with optical measurements or stop up your microfluidics. So space experiment equipment often includes contraptions for stopping or blocking or trapping bubbles.

      A third issue is convection. So on Earth, gravity drives a process of gas mixing called convection and that helps circulate air. But without that in microgravity we worry about some of our experimental organisms and whether they’re going to get the fresh air that they need. So we might do things like adding a fan to their habitat, or if we can’t, we’ll take their habitat and put it somewhere where there might already be a fan on the ISS or in a corridor where we think they are going to be a lot of astronauts moving around and circulating the air.

      Yet another issue is the fact that a lot of the laboratory instruments we use on Earth are not designed for microgravity. So to ensure that gravity doesn’t play a factor in how they work, we might do experiments on the ground where we turn them on their side or upside down, or rotate them on a rotisserie to make sure that they keep working.

      So, as you can tell, for every experiment that we do on the International Space Station, there’s a whole team of scientists on the ground that has spent years developing the experiment design. And so I guess the answer to how we do research in microgravity is with a lot of practice and preparation.

      [END VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

      Full Episode List

      Full YouTube Playlist
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 28, 2025 Related Terms
      ISS Research Biological & Physical Sciences International Space Station (ISS) Science & Research Science Mission Directorate Explore More
      2 min read Summer Students Scan the Radio Skies with SunRISE
      Solar radio bursts, intense blasts of radio emission associated with solar flares, can wreak havoc…
      Article 58 mins ago 3 min read NASA Interns Conduct Aerospace Research in Microgravity
      The NASA Science Activation program’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Enhancement in Earth Science…
      Article 19 hours ago 19 min read Summary of the 2024 SAGE III/ISS Meeting
      Introduction The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III/International Space Station [SAGEIII/ISS] Science Team Meeting…
      Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
      Missions
      Humans in Space
      Climate Change
      Solar System
      View the full article
    • NASA
      How Do We Do Research in Zero Gravity? We Asked a NASA Expert
      By NASA
      How Do We Do Research in Zero Gravity? We Asked a NASA Expert
    • NASA
      Gravity Poppers: Hopping Probes for the Interior Mapping of Small Solar System Bodies
      By NASA
      2 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Artist concept highlighting the novel approach proposed by the 2025 NIAC awarded selection of Gravity Poppers: Hopping Probes for the Interior Mapping of Small Solar System Bodies concept.NASA/Benjamin Hockman Benjamin Hockman
      NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
      The goal of this effort is to develop a robust and affordable mission architecture that enables the gravimetric density reconstruction of small body interiors to unprecedented precision. Our architecture relies on the novel concept of “Gravity Poppers,” which are small, minimalistic probes that are deployed to the surface of a small body and periodically “pop” so as to perpetuate a random hopping motion around the body. By tracking a large swarm of poppers from orbit, a mother spacecraft can precisely estimate their trajectories and continuously refine a high-resolution map of the body’s gravity field, and thus, its internal mass distribution. Hopping probes are also equipped with minimalistic in-situ sensors to measure the surface temperature (when landed) and strength (when bouncing) in order to complement the gravity field and build a more accurate picture of the interior. The Phase I study focused on feasibility assessment of three core technologies that enable such a mission: (1) the mechanical design of hopping probes to be small, simple, robust, and “visible” to a distant spacecraft, (2) the tracking strategy for detecting and estimating the trajectories of a large number of ballistic probes, and (3) the algorithmic framework by which such measurements can be used to iteratively refine a gravity model of the body. The key finding was that the concept is feasible, and demonstrated to have the potential to resolve extremely accurate gravity models, allowing scientists to localize density anomalies such as “weighing” large boulders on the surface. This Phase II Proposal aims to further develop these three core technologies through continued mission trade studies and sensitivity analysis, case studies for simulated missions, and hardware prototypes demonstrating both hopping behavior and tracking performance.
      2025 Selections
      Facebook logo @NASATechnology @NASA_Technology


      Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 27, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
      NIAC Studies NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program Keep Exploring Discover More NIAC Topics
      Space Technology Mission Directorate
      NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts
      NIAC Funded Studies
      About NIAC
      View the full article

  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...