Raduga is the codename of a Soviet thermonuclear test, conducted in October 20, 1961, in Mityushikha Bay, Severny Island

Severny Island

Severny Island is the northern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, lying north of Russia. It has an area of , making it one of the largest islands in the world. It is separated from Yuzhny Island by the narrow Matochkin Strait...

 of Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...

.

The test was realized by the Northern Fleet

Northern Fleet

The Red Banner Northern Fleet is a unit of the Russian Navy that has access to the Barents and Norwegian Seas, the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, and is responsible for the defense of northwestern Russia. It was established in 1937 as part of the Soviet Navy...

. A R-13

R-13

The R-13 was a submarine-launched ballistic missile developed by the Soviet Union starting around 1955. It was assigned the NATO reporting name SS-N-4 Sark and carried the GRAU index 4K50.-History:...

 rocket with a thermonuclear warhead was fired from a submarine K-102. When the submarine reached the specified point in the Barents Sea

Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

, she could not clarify her position due to cloudiness and snowfall. Firstly the shot an R-13 rocket without nuclear warheads, which fell to a strong deviation from the testing ground. However, it was decided to continue the experiment in spite of bad weather. The next rocket reached the target point with a deviation less than the previous one, exploded at 530 m height and released an energy of 1450 kilotons.