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

  • Released Thursday, November 7, 2024
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On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Gulf Coast of Florida, inducing storm surges and widespread destruction on the land below. At the same time, NASA’s Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE), which is mounted on the outside of the International Space Station, recorded enormous swells that the hurricane produced in the atmosphere roughly 55 miles above the ground.



These massive ripples through the upper atmosphere, known as atmospheric gravity waves, appear in AWE’s images as concentric bands extending away from northern Florida.



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This video shows images taken by AWE as the International Space Station traveled over the southeastern United States on Sept. 26, 2024. 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 and reveal the gravity waves produced by Hurricane Helene. The dots on the continent mark the locations of cities.

Credit: Utah State University

This GIF shows images taken by AWE as the International Space Station traveled over the southeastern United States on Sept. 26, 2024. 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 and reveal the gravity waves produced by Hurricane Helene. The dots on the continent mark the locations of cities.Credit: Utah State University

This GIF shows images taken by AWE as the International Space Station traveled over the southeastern United States on Sept. 26, 2024. 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 and reveal the gravity waves produced by Hurricane Helene. The dots on the continent mark the locations of cities.

Credit: Utah State University

This video uses the same AWE observations from Sept. 26, 2024, presented in a different color scheme that uses shades of blue to show the gravity waves produced by Hurricane Helene.

Credit: Utah State University

This video uses the same AWE observations from Sept. 26, 2024, presented in a different color scheme that uses shades of gray to show the gravity waves produced by Hurricane Helene.

Credit: Utah State University

For More Information

See https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/hurricane-helenes-gravity-waves-revealed-by-nasas-awe/

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Thursday, November 7, 2024.
This page was last updated on Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 11:55 AM EST.