#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The ice-resistant self-propelled platform (ISP) North Pole, where the expedition North Pole 41 took place, returned to Murmansk. The first comprehensive expedition of this kind in ten years worked in the Arctic for more than a year and a half and collected a large amount of information about the processes taking place in high latitudes. TASS reports this.
The expedition members were met at the piers of the Murmansk fishing port with an orchestra. Friends and relatives greeted the scientists at the ramp. The head of the North Pole 41 expedition Kirill Filchuk handed over the expedition flag to the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) for safekeeping, after which Murmansk schoolchildren visited the ship and were given a tour of the ice-resistant platform.
As the AARI head Alexander Makarov noted, living on the ship was very comfortable for polar explorers and cannot be compared with life in an ice camp.
“The platform behaved as efficiently as possible in the ice. We were pleasantly surprised that it worked so well; it was very convenient to set up camp on the ice. Well, it’s difficult to overestimate how the quality of life of scientists on board affects their desire to work”, he emphasized.
The AARI head explained that the research results obtained have yet to be comprehended and analyzed, but it is already clear that they will have a great influence in the planning of further expeditions.
“We have learned more about how the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans affect melting in the Arctic. This data is necessary so that we can refine our forecast models for ice, and this, in turn, has practical application – creating forecasts for navigation along the Northern Sea Route. Now the task is to ensure year-round navigation in the east of the Northern Sea Route, which has never been done before. This is also a challenge for our institute to continuously provide accurate forecasts to all ships and companies that operate in the Arctic both in winter and summer. The results of direct observations from a platform in the Central Arctic will be important for refining our forecast models”, concluded the head of AARI.
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Text: Polina Bardik, Photo: Olga Polyanskaya
