Utah State's Space Dynamics Laboratory built the first ISS instrument designed to watch gravity waves bridge the gap between terrestrial weather and space weather.
Atmospheric Waves Experiment
work concluded confidence: Medium status: Draft updated 2026-06-25
Summary
NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) is an instrument mounted on the International Space Station, built by Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory. If AWE's dataset materially improves models of upper-atmosphere dynamics or space-weather forecasting, it will represent a clean example of Utah-built space instrumentation moving an entire scientific field.
Impact
If AWE's dataset materially improves models of upper-atmosphere dynamics or space-weather forecasting, it will represent a clean example of Utah-built space instrumentation moving an entire scientific field. NASA describes AWE as the first mission of its kind to study how atmospheric gravity waves influence the upper atmosphere from the ISS — a measurement vantage point uniquely suited to global coverage.
The broader significance is that terrestrial weather and space weather are typically treated as separate domains with separate agencies, models, and scientific communities. AWE is aimed at the seam between them. Better understanding of vertical coupling could improve GPS accuracy, protect satellite and communication infrastructure, and help predict ionospheric disturbances that affect aviation and national security systems.
What It Took
SDL built the AWE science instrument: a four-camera infrared imaging array that observes airglow emissions in the hydroxyl and oxygen layers near the mesopause. The instrument was designed, fabricated, integrated, tested, and delivered for ISS installation. USU also leads mission science operations.
The March 2025 data release — more than five million images from 3,000 orbits — represents a novel observational archive of gravity wave structure, amplitude, and propagation that did not exist before AWE.
Utah Context
USU and SDL are the scientific and engineering heart of AWE. The science originated at USU, the instrument was built in North Logan, and mission operations are run from Logan. This is a USU-led NASA science mission, not merely a hardware subcontract — an important distinction in a state where SDL's role in NASA missions has historically ranged from full mission leadership to component supply.
AWE sits within a broader SDL atmospheric-sensing lineage that includes SABER/TIMED and SOFIE/AIM — multiple Utah-built instruments making the upper atmosphere measurable over long time baselines.
Evidence
- NASA: AWE mission page · https://science.nasa.gov/mission/awe/ — source record
- NASA: AWE launching to space station to study atmospheric waves via airglow · https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/awe-launching-to-space-station-to-study-atmospheric-waves-via-airglow/
- NASA: AWE first 3,000 orbits data release · https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/heliophysics/nasa-awe-first-data/ — source record
- USU Today: USU-led AWE releases data from first 3,000 orbits · https://www.usu.edu/today/story/usu-led-nasa-atmospheric-wave-studying-mission-releases-data-from-first-3000-orbits — source record
- AWE mission: SDL captures first light · https://www.awemission.org/media-resources/news/2024-01-05-sdl-captures-first-light-from-awe — source record
Open Questions
- What do peer-reviewed AWE results establish about improvements to upper-atmosphere modeling and space-weather forecasting?