St Petersburg University graduate Vasily Kustov hoisted the national flag of the Russian Federation over the drifting station in the Barents Sea
At a latitude of 83 degree north, an opening ceremony of the drifting ice station of the new “ship-to-ice” type was held. It is aimed to perfect new technologies of the organisation of polar research. The ship “Academik Treshnikov” is already attached to ice and is about to start drifting.
The great expedition ‘Trans Arctic 2019’ started on 20th March from the port of Murmansk. It is within its first stage that the scientists will scrutinise the main aspects of organisation of research work on the special ice-resistant drifting platform that is now being built at the Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg. The new modern ship will replace stationery drifting platforms “The North Pole”, which have recently become ineffective and unsafe due to the aggravation of the ice situation: thinning of ice as a result of the global warming.
The leader of the meteorological team of the expedition and a graduate of the Institute of the Earth Sciences of St Petersburg University (Department of Climatology & Environmental Monitoring) Vasily Kustov was honoured to hoist the national flag of the Russian Federation over the station. Another participant of the expedition Sergei Priakhin is also a graduate of the University, now an ice researcher and a member of Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute. Traditionally the work of the observatory “SI - E” (ship and ice experimental) began with the first meteorological telegram.
The crew of the ship “Academik Treshnikov” consists of more than 50 Russian and foreign scientists. During two and a half months they will be studying the biological environment, climate and seabed conditions of the Arctic Ocean.