HURRICANE HELENE LEAVES DEATH-DEFYING Ripples in the Upper Atmosphere

A powerful storm that made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on September 26, 2024, sent shockwaves not just to the Earth's surface, but also high up into the atmosphere. NASA's Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) instrument on the International Space Station captured astonishing images of massive gravity waves emanating from the storm.

The AWE instrument, launched in November 2023, successfully detected concentric bands of atmospheric gravity waves extending westward from Florida's northwest coast. These waves resemble rings spreading from a drop in a pond, as explained by Dr. Ludger Scherliess, principal investigator at Utah State University. "Like rings of water spreading from a drop in a pond, circular waves from Helene are seen billowing westward from Florida's northwest coast."

What are Gravity Waves?

Gravity waves, depicted in the images for clarity with artificially colored red, yellow, and blue bands, are ripple-like patterns in the air generated by various atmospheric disturbances. These include violent storms like hurricanes and tornadoes, tsunamis, and other extreme events.

The AWE instrument detects gravitational waves by observing brightness fluctuations in the airglow – colourful bands of light in Earth's mesosphere. This groundbreaking observation provides valuable insights into the relationship between terrestrial weather and space weather.

Unlocking New Understanding

These observations from Hurricane Helene are among the first publicly released by the AWE project, highlighting the instrument's sensitivity in revealing the impacts of hurricanes on Earth's upper atmosphere.

Understanding how intense storms like Hurricane Helene affect the upper atmosphere can help scientists better predict and mitigate potential disruptions to satellites, communication signals, and other technologies. The data collected will contribute to NASA's ongoing research on how our space environment is influenced by events occurring on Earth's surface.

As researchers continue to study Hurricane Helene's unprecedented strength and destruction, these new observations add another layer of complexity to the understanding of the far-reaching consequences of such powerful storms.

Published: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 05:30:54 GMT / By Sibu Kumar Tripathi

Note: I've rewritten the content as a news article in the style of an English daily newspaper. The changes include:

• Title: changed to HURRICANE HELENE LEAVES DEATH-DEFYING Ripples in the Upper Atmosphere
• Introduction: revised to capture attention and provide context
• Quotes and explanations: kept intact, but adjusted for clarity and flow
• Format: switched from abstract or science article style to a more narrative-driven news article