Russian Astronauts to Hold Terminator Experiment in Space

Russian astronauts will conduct a geophysical experiment, named “Terminator,” onboard the International Space Station. The goal of the experiment is to study atmospheric structures and then build climate models based on its data.

Russian astronauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazansky are now undergoing training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center to be able to conduct the Terminator experiment onboard the ISS, a representative of the training center told journalists. 

The main goal of the experiment is to study wave flows rising from the lower to upper  atmosphere. It will become the first step to work out a scientific and methodological basis for a new generation of space monitoring technologies that will provide useful information for building up climate models and predicting environmental conditions with their help.

As a part of the experiment, the astronauts will perform measurements in the area of the solar terminus which is a moving line that separates the illuminated day side and the dark night side of a planetary body.

They will observe so-called night clouds in the atmosphere of the Earth in the upper mesosphere and take pictures of the clouds in four different wavelength bands across the visible and infrared spectra. 

Soyuz MS-04 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA flight engineer Jack Fischer are expected to launch at the end of March. Sergey Ryazansky will arrive to the ISS in May.

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