#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Yury Trutnev, deputy prime minister of Russia, the Russian Federation president’s plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern Federal District, and Yury Borisov, general director of the Roscosmos State Corporation, held a meeting at the Vostochny cosmodrome on the creation of an Arctic satellite constellation for the safety of navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
The Roscosmos head specified that the state corporation considers the provision of the Northern Sea Route as its top priority project:
“A schedule for the satellite constellation development and launch has been planned, responsibilities have been determined. Funding has been fully allocated. It is necessary to exclude ‘shifts to the right’ in order to provide our consumers with all the services on time”.
According to the Roskosmos director, in the first place, when choosing satellites for the orbital station, the state corporation relied on the Northern Sea Route users’ requests.
As part of the Arctic orbital satellite constellation creation, by 2024, two Arktika-M spacecraft, which will provide data on the hydrometeorological situation at high latitudes, three radar surveillance satellites – two Kondor-FKA and one Obzor -R. By 2026 – four Express-RV satellites to provide broadband Internet access in the Russian Arctic zone will appear.
“Without the creation of an Arctic satellite constellation, the safe passage of ships along the Northern Sea Route is not possible. This work is underway, and a series of satellites will be launched in a few days, which should work for the infrastructure of this global transport corridor”, said Yury Trutnev.
In accordance with Russian legislation, the tasks of monitoring the ice cover and hydrometeorological situation, including in the Arctic region, are assigned to Roshydromet federal service. For this information support of navigation along the Northern Sea Route, there is the Sever system, as well as the state space monitoring system with satellite centers in Moscow, Novosibirsk and Habarovsk, in which they receive and process data from meteorological satellites.
According to the Roshydromet head Igor Shumakov, thanks to the first Arktika-M spacecraft launch in February 2021, Roshydromet has the opportunity to receive up-to-date information on the state of the atmosphere and the underlying surface throughout the Arctic region with a high time frequency – observations are carried out once every 15 minutes 12 hours per day. When the second vehicle is launched in 2023, it will be possible to observe around the clock from highly elliptical orbits over the North Pole every 15 minutes.
In addition to data from weather satellites monitoring in the visible and infrared range, it is necessary to monitor the ice cover using onboard radars, which are planned to be installed on the Condor and Obzor-R vehicles. Radars will also be installed on four Meteor-M low-orbit satellites, which are planned to be launched before 2025.
The implementation of these plans will allow Roshydromet to improve the accuracy of forecasting the meteorological situation.
Earlier, This Is Taimyr reported that the Northern Sea Route turns 90 this year and that it is important for navigation in the North to study the ice.
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Text: Ekaterina Maksimova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division press service and Denis Kozhevnikov