Presidential Aide, Chairman of the Maritime Board Nikolai Patrushev, visited the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St. Petersburg. During his visit, he discussed major research projects in the Arctic and Antarctic with the institute's leadership and scientific staff, as well as with representatives of Roshydromet, Russia's Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring.
The meeting focused on the importance of climate and environmental monitoring in the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route (NSR). Patrushev emphasized the need for accurate ice condition forecasts to ensure the safety of navigation along the NSR. He also highlighted the significance of improving the quality of data obtained from the existing marine coastal hydrometeorological network, studying permafrost, and forecasting its behavior in the context of global warming. The chairman stressed the need to enhance hydrometeorological support for maritime operations.
“To effectively explore the Arctic and preserve its fragile environment, it is essential to improve the quality of observational data from the operational marine coastal hydrometeorological network. Accurate ice condition forecasts are critical for the safety of the Northern Sea Route, along with maintaining and developing Russia's orbital constellation of Earth remote sensing satellites,” Patrushev stated.
He noted the need to establish an effective system for hydrometeorological support of maritime activities, including restoring and expanding observations at coastal hydrometeorological stations, developing automatic and autonomous technical means, improving systems for monitoring marine environmental characteristics, and advancing methods and models for calculating hydrometeorological characteristics of the marine environment, including ice conditions.
A separate topic of discussion during the meeting was the study of permafrost and predictions of its behavior under global warming. AARI is working on creating a State Monitoring System for Permafrost Conditions. By the end of next year, 140 observation points will be established in permafrost regions across Russia. Currently, about half of the wells have been launched and are transmitting data to AARI's Permafrost Monitoring Center.
AARI’s Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Change presented a project on studying Earth's paleoclimate. The Chairman also visited AARI's Ice Testing Basin, where he was briefed on model testing for future ice-class vessels and witnessed an experiment demonstrating a vessel model moving through ice.
The large ice basin is designed to study interactions between icebreakers, ice-class vessels, and stationary engineering structures with ice cover in low-temperature conditions. It has been used to test models of icebreakers such as Ilya Muromets and Yevpaty Kolovrat and research expedition vessels like North Pole and Ivan Frolov, among others.
Source: AARI.
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