Hurricane Helene gravity waves recorded from orbit

Nov. 8 () –

The instrument AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) of NASA on the International Space Station recorded enormous waves in the atmosphere that Hurricane Helene produced at 88 kilometers high.

This observation occurred on September 26, 2024, as Helene struck the Florida Gulf Coast, causing storm surges and widespread impacts on the communities in its path.

These huge ripples through the upper atmosphere, known as atmospheric gravity waves, appear in AWE images as concentric bands (artificially colored here in red, yellow and blue) that extend from northern Florida.

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

The AWE instrument, launched in November 2023 and installed outside the International Space Station, observes Earth for atmospheric gravity waves, ripple-like patterns in the air generated by atmospheric disturbances such as violent thunderstorms, tornadoes, tsunamis, wind gusts over mountain ranges, and hurricanes. To do this, it looks for brightness fluctuations in bands of colored light called atmospheric glow in Earth’s mesosphere. AWE’s study of these gravity waves created by Earth’s weather helps NASA determine how they affect space weather.

These images of Hurricane Helene’s gravity waves are among the first published by AWE, confirming that the instrument has the sensitivity necessary to reveal the impacts that hurricanes have on the Earth’s upper atmosphere, NASA reports.