In less than 4 days the launch of the Ax-1 will take place at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is truly an exciting moment for Israel and for all of us, who are somehow affiliated with the mission.
Growing up in Almaty, a city of diverse nations and cultures, high mountains, and red tasty apples, I’ve never dreamed about working on something that will be related to space, thunderstorms, and definitely not ISS. Nonetheless, it happened and here I am, assisting in the research that aims to study electrical phenomena above thunderstorms thought observations that will rely on forecasts of thunderstorm targets that will be relayed to the astronaut on-board the ISS. As a third-year student of Government and Sustainability, it is a lifetime opportunity to be an assistant and coordinator for Hong Kong Carmel school in the ILAN-ES experiment (in collaboration with #RamonFoundation and #NASA). In addition, it is a great honor to be guided by such an outstanding person - Professor Yoav Yair, and to be a little part of such a historical mission for Israel.
But how is this related to Sustainability?
Since sustainability is a very broad area that is focusing on climate change, I’m very interested in learning more about thunderstorms and lightning and their effect on Earth. It is widely known that lightning is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on earth which refers to a group of physical processes that happen in both the stratosphere and atmosphere and are affecting human activities on Earth. About 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth’s surface, that’s about 8 million per day and 3 billion each year. Lightning is not only spectacular, it’s a dangerous event that kills about 2,000 people worldwide each year and causes forest fires. Moreover, climate change is causing more lightning, and there is increasing scientific evidence worldwide pointing to that. Therefore, it is crucial to make further studies and experiments to understand and try to mitigate climate change.
In addition, I'm also happy to announce that I had a chance to translate the official website of ILAN-ES to Russian.
