The AWESOME mission will study the density, wind, and composition perturbations that occur in Earth's high latitude thermosphere in response to impulsive local forcing during auroral substorms. It is motivated by the premise that generation of acoustic-gravity waves plays a far greater role in the substorm response than is generally recognized or implemented in current models.

Science Questions:

What is the wave response to substorms, and is it consistent with the observed forcing?

What is the relative importance of Lorentz versus Joule forcing in establishing these waves?

What is the relative importance of wave excitation versus acceleration of the vertical wind in the thermosphere’s dynamical response to substorm forcing?

What role do waves play in vertical mixing and composition changes caused by substorms?

Three rockets will be launched northward from Poker Flat following the onset of magnetic substorm.

The frst rocket will be a Terrier-Improved Malemute class vehicle launched within 15minutes of onset. It will make absolute measurements of the directly-driven 3-component vector winds and all three pressure gradient terms during the most active phase of the storm.

Two further rockets will launch approximately 1-2 hours later (which is 1 to 3 times the period of the expected waves) to characterize the subsequent wave response.

The main Black-Brant XII-A vehicle will deploy a constellation of wind tracers and pressure gauges roughly 800 km north of Poker Flat, to directly measure all three frst-order pressure gradients and all nine frst-order wind gradients.

The remaining rocket will be a repeat of the frst Terrier-Improved Malemute. Its purpose is to extend the measurement baseline by roughly 600 km in the direction of expected wave propagation.

All three rockets will carry science magnetometers to measure ionospheric current density.

The Principal Investigator is Dr. Conde/University of Alaska