Hurricane Helene’s gravity waves revealed by NASA’s AWE
NASA Space Technology 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.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...
