gh RUSSIA RETURNS TO ARCTIC ON A DRIFTING ICE-FLOE

After a long break Russia is getting ready to resume the research in Arctic with the help of floating stations. As Valery Martyshenko (Rosgidromet) has advised InformNauka, an appropriate ice-floe is currently being looked for, and the 32nd station will start the floating in the last decade of April. Vladimir Sokolov, Head of the SP-32 floating station (Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg) assumes that the ice-floe will get to the North Pole area in a year and then it will float to the Atlantic and melt. The SP-32 floating station will be staffed by 12 crew members: six researchers and six specialists.

The objective of setting up a floating station is to carry out the integrated study in the near-arctic area. The detailed scientific program is under approval yet, the important thing at the initial stage being to arrange the on-line collection of meteorological and hydrological data, to track the ice condition. Further on, starting from autumn, the research is planned to take three major directions: studying climatic changes in Arctic; tracking the ice conditions; monitoring the water and ice contamination. Biologists, cytologists and geochemists will be working on the ice-floe. Although there have been no Russian floating stations employed since 1991, the researchers hope to resume monitoring and to compare new data with the preceding one. Such are the plans which are subject to changes and amendments in the course of floating. The worst scenario would be if the ice-floe splits up or floats to the Atlantics earlier than expected.