Terminator (solar)

A terminator, twilight zone or "grey line" is a moving line that separates the illuminated day side and the dark night side of a planetary body. A terminator is defined as the locus of points on a Moon or planet where the line through a Sun is tangent.

The Earth's terminator

Video of the Earth from the ISS as it approaches the terminator.

On Earth, the terminator is a circle with a diameter that is approximately that of the Earth. The terminator passes through any point on the Earth's surface twice a day, once at sunrise and once at sunset, apart from polar regions where this only occurs when the point is not experiencing midnight sun or polar night. The circle separates the portion of the Earth experiencing daylight from that experiencing darkness (night). While a little over one half of the Earth is illuminated at any point in time (with exceptions during eclipses), the terminator path varies by time of day due to the rotation of the Earth on its axis. The terminator path also varies by time of year due to the revolution of the Earth around the sun: the plane of the terminator is nearly parallel to planes created by lines of longitude during the equinoxes, and at its maximum angle of approximately 23.5 degrees to the equator during the solstices.

At the equator, under flat conditions (no obstructions such as mountains; or at a height above any such obstructions), the terminator moves at approximately 1668 kilometers per hour (1036 miles per hour). This speed can appear to increase when near obstructions—such as the height of a mountain, for example—as the shadow of the obstruction will be cast over the ground in advance of the terminator along a flat landscape. The speed of the terminator decreases as it approaches the poles, where it can reach a speed of zero (full-day sunlight or darkness).

Supersonic aircraft like jet fighters or Concorde and Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transports are the only aircraft able to overtake the maximum speed of the terminator. However, slower vehicles can overtake the terminator at higher latitudes, and it is possible to walk faster than the terminator at the poles, near to the equinoxes. The visual effect is that of seeing the Sun rise in the west, or set in the east.

Amateur radio operators take advantage of conditions at the terminator (so-called "gray-line" propagation, or "grey-line" to the British) to perform long distance communications. Under good conditions, radio waves can travel along the terminator to antipodal points. This is primarily because the D layer, which absorbs high frequency signals, disappears rapidly on the dark side of the terminator line. This process is known as skywave propagation.

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  A seasonal animation of the terminator line at sunset over central Europe.

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  The transition from light to dark takes place on two fronts in this image of Mimas.

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  The orientation of the terminator between the northern and southern hemispheres depends on the season. On the spring and fall equinoxes (around March and September 21), there is no tilt of the Earth with respect to the Sun so the terminator line is parallel with the axis of the Earth and with the lines of longitude.

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  A photograph of part of the terminator crossing the surface of the Earth, as seen from the ISS. The terminator is diffuse and shows the gradual transition to darkness that is experienced as twilight on the surface.

Scientific significance

Examination of a terminator can yield information about the surface of a planetary body; for example, the presence of an atmosphere can create a fuzzier terminator. As the particles within an atmosphere are at a higher elevation, the light source can remain visible even after it has set at ground level. These particles scatter the light, reflecting some of it to the ground. Hence, the sky can remain illuminated even after the Sun has set.

Low Earth orbit satellites take advantage of the fact that certain polar orbits set near the terminator do not suffer from eclipse, therefore their solar cells are continuously lit by sunlight. Such orbits are called dawn-dusk orbits, a type of Sun-synchronous orbit. This prolongs the operational life of a LEO satellite, as onboard battery life is prolonged. It also enables specific experiments that require the minimum influence of the Sun, as the designers can opt to install the relevant sensors on the dark side of the satellite.

See also

• Ground track

External links

• Current terminator
• aa.usno.navy.mil - Website calculating synthetic images (B&W or color) representing the terminator for a given time (date & hour)