Atmospheric Waves Experiment
Throughout its lifetime, NASA's AWE mission frequently observed how powerful convective storms in the lower atmosphere can disturb the upper atmosphere. Over the United States, especially in late spring, these storms can generate rippling signatures that propagate across large horizontal scales. This gallery showcases two representative cases through video and interactive 3D visualization.
During nighttime, AWE observes infrared airglow emissions from the OH layer, which allows for a snapshot view of upper atmospheric dynamics near 85-87 km altitude. In this visualization, AWE observations are highlighted that were obtained when the ISS flew right over the March 11, 2026 storms.
The observations reveal short-wavelength, coherent gravity-wave signatures tracking eastward toward the Atlantic sector. These spread-out coherent waves may perhaps also be attributed to the weather system over the US. Note that AWE also records cloud structures comparable to GOES imagery.
March 11, 2026 timeline video (23:23 to 06:00 UTC). As the sun sets, AWE starts to make its way across the Northeastern US.
Controls: rotate with left button, pan with right button, and zoom with mouse wheel.
In this visualization, AWE observations are shown that were obtained when the ISS flew right over the March 11, 2026, storms.
File: awe_2026-03-11_iss-globe-animation.opt.glbControls: rotate with left button, pan with right button, and zoom with mouse wheel.
The q-line radiance channel provides the clearest insight into structures. This emission can also reveal clouds, which are usually removed prior to gravity wave analyses.
File: awe_2026-03-11_awe-goes-closer-look.opt.glbOn May 25, 2024, the Valley View supercell in North Texas produced a long-track EF3 tornado. This AWE pass lines up with the reported touchdown window near 9:41 p.m. CDT, capturing the storm at a critical moment.
That timing is scientifically important: gravity-wave signatures seen by AWE near the OH layer (~85-87 km) generally originate from earlier convective forcing and can take hours to propagate into the mesosphere-lower thermosphere. In other words, AWE is observing the upper-atmosphere response to storm processes that began before tornadogenesis.
May 26 timeline video (23:23 to 06:00 UTC). A powerful convective system is observed by AWE as it flies over Dallas, TX.
Controls: rotate with left button, pan with right button, and zoom with mouse wheel.
On May 26, 2024, AWE flew over a destructive supercell formation that produced several tornadoes. This interactive 3D visualization showcases that orbit, where concentric gravity waves point to a single origin for the strongest signatures.
File: awe_2024-05-26_iss-globe-animation.opt.glbControls: rotate with left button, pan with right button, and zoom with mouse wheel.
These are 8-sector perturbation profiles that denote different propagation directions of the concentric gravity wave. Due to underlying wind shear, westward-propagating waves are critically filtered and dissipate, while eastward-propagating waves increase in amplitude with distance.
File: awe_2024-05-26_measuring-perturbations.opt.glb