“NP” stations carry out the program of complex year-round research in the fields of oceanology, ice studies, meteorology, aerology, geophysics, hydrochemistry, hydrophysics, as well as in the field of marine biology. On average, an “NP” station is the host for 600 to 650 ocean depth measurements, 3500 to 3900 complex meteorology measurements, 1200 to 1300 temperature measurements and sea water probes for chemical analysis, 600 to 650 research balloon launches. Magnetic, ionosphere, ice and other observations are also carried out there. Regular measurements of the ice flow coordinates provide the data on the direction and speed of its drift.
Nuclear icebreaker “RUSSIA”, October 2 – RIA Novosti, Anna Yudina. Drifting research station “North Pole-40” officially began its work on 1 October at 23.45 MSK, from the moment when it was hoisted the national flag of the Russian Federation.
The floe on which the station is located, is 85 degrees north latitude and 143 degrees east longitude. The opening of the station was attended by the head of the High-sea expedition “Arktika-2012” Vladimir Sokolov, a submarine captain “Russia” Oleg Shapin and the Bishop of Naryan-Mar, Mezensky James, explorers and the crew of an icebreaker.
“In search of ice floes for the SP-40 was difficult, but we still have successfully completed this task. Today is yours worth icebreaker with the symbolic name” Russia. “Russian scientists have carried out in the Arctic of unique scientific challenges and realize the important task of our presence in the high country latitudes, “- said the Falcons at the opening of the station.
Flag SP-40 raised two young scientists who first went to winter in the Arctic – the leading expert Igor Shutilin station and hydrograph Denis Kudryavtsev.
Spend the winter on a drifting ice floe will be 16 people, headed by the chief of the SP-40, an experienced polar explorer Nikolai Fomichev. Just a few days ago at the site selected by scientists near the submarine “Russia” began rolling out a new station, organized transportation of equipment, supplies and houses.
An idea to use the drift ice for the exploration of nature in the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean belongs to Fridtjof Nansen, who fulfilled it on Fram between 1893 and 1896. The first stations to use drift ice as means of scientific exploration of the Arctic originated in the Soviet Union in 1937, when the first such station in the world, North Pole-1, started operations.