FROM SEA DEPTHS TO IONOSPHERE

On the Edge of the Probltms of the North

Ivan FROLOV,
Director of the Arctic
and Antarctic Research Institute

         The State Research Centre of the Russian Federation, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, which is 80 years old, is known as one of major research institutions dealing with polar studies not only in this country but worldwide" -says Ivan Frolov, Director of the AARI.

        Dr. Frolov, it is a known fact that the AARI was set up initially by the Russian Government as a research centre for a comprehensive study of the northern problems, including those dealing with the development of the northern economy. Thus the Arctic Institute has always been at the core of many problems such as natural sciences and development of the Russian North, including the development of transportation and industry, defence and social issues. And what is the situation today?

        -The AARI and its scientific potential keeps to be in demand. This is particularly important at a general background of reducing state budgeting of the science in general. We managed to find extra-budgetary funding sources which made it possible for the Institute to maintain its highly professional personnel (out of the 600 strong permanent staff of the AARI, there are 200 scientists with Candidate or Doctor Degrees), its research fleet, work shops and Ice Test Tank, as well as major research outposts in the Artic and Antarctic, and in the Leningrad Oblast.
        The AARI is organised into 20 research departments, Centre of Sea Ice and Hydrological and Meteorological Data being one of them. The World Sea Ice Data Centre was opened at the Institute. The AARI also manages the Russian Antarctic Expedition with its Antarctic research stations. It owns a unique research ice-strengthened vessel the Akademik Fedorov, research and experimental stations (Ladozhskaya, and Gorkovskaya in the environs of St. Petersburg), Ice Test Tank and Works manufacturing research instruments and tools.
        All these facilities allow the AARI to carry comprehensive polar research and investigations from the deep oceans up to the ionosphere and from studying the interaction of ship hull and structures with ice to the problems of adaptation of humans to the harsh polar environment.
        It so happened in historic retrospective that the studies the AARI is carrying out are of integrated nature, priorities of research programmes and emphasis on various problems are changing depending on the requirements. This makes the AARI attractive to various very serious partners. Recently the AARI has participated in major projects and programmes aimed at the Arctic development, playing a leading role in them. These primarily include studies in the Pechora and Kara Seas which such important Russian oil companies as LUKoil, GASPROM, ROSSHELF are interested in, foreign companies (Norsk Hydro, Kvaerner Masa Yards) follow in their wake. The AARI participated in such international projects as INSROP (International Northern Sea Route Programme), and ARCDEV (Artcic Demonstration and Exploitation Voyage).
        The AARI has achieved remarkable results in the course of its work in the Arctic and Antarctic ensuring a leading role of the Russian science in the field of polar research, particularly in the Arctic. The discovery of a system of submarine ridges and valleys at the Arctic Ocean bottom, has completely changed the earlier existing concept of Arctic Ocean water circulation and water mass distribution. The System of Monitoring of the Arctic Ocean Waters based on regular observations of ice drifting stations ("North Pole" Stations) and high-latitude airborne expeditions resulted in collection of unique data series that were used as the basis for the Arctic Atlas published by the AARI.

        -What can you tell us about the most important results of the last few years?

        -The priorities of the AARI are obvious. What are they? It is worthwhile to mention here that the AARI is leading research centre that manages the largest package of the Arctic environmental data obtained during the last 80 years. This wealth of information, that is actually unique, helps our scientific personnel to get a better insight into the natural processes occurring there. And the AARI employees the largest number of Arctic scientists than any other research institution ever had.
        -Indeed it was not by chance that the AARI was made responsible for the research part of a EU Project aimed at the evaluation of possibilities and viability of hydrocarbon transportation from the Ob Bay to Rotterdam. The AARI is also a Coordinator of the Russian-German Project called "The Laptev Sea System", in which more than 20 research centres of our two countries participate.
        What else? Our Institute hosts the World Sea Ice Data Centre, which draws extensively on the AARI sea ice archives. Within the International Arctic Buoy Programme we have built and deployed in the Arctic about two dozens of automatic meteorological buoys designed in the AARI, a drifting buoy belonging to the new generation of ARGOS buoys is one of them. The scientists of the AARI developed electronic Arctic Atlases, an advanced way of data storage and generalisation. The AARI has developed an automatic distribution system of Arctic natural environment data. The research Ice Sheet drilling is going on, greatly contributing to the reconstruction of the past Arctic and Antarctic climates covering the first few hundred thousand years.

        -What facilities and tools are used to carry out such a large and varied research complex? Does the Institute cooperate with other relevant research institutions both in this country and abroad?

        -Absolutely, operation of such a large scale would have been impossible without cooperation. We have very close ties with our Russian and foreign colleagues, first of all in Germany, Norway, USA, Sweden, Finland, Japan, South Korea, Poland, UK, and Canada. The AARI currently participates in the work of various national and international organisations, programmes and projects. I can name at least 50 Committees, Commissions and Working Groups dealing with polar studies. Also it is very important that the AARI participates in and hosts various symposia and scientific conferences in this country and abroad. Annually about 200 scientists are sent to other countries or the AARI acts as a host to visiting scientists.

        -Recent years have seen a "drain" of young scientists, who quit science and as a result scientific institutions have aged considerable. Are you worried by this trend?

        -Surely, unfortunately. Though we make attempts to resolve this problem. Together with the Russian State Hydrometeorological University we have set up the Polar School where our leading experts deliver lectures. Annually a large number of undergraduate students from various St. Petersburg High Schools come to the AARI for their probation work, and the best and most promising students work for their diplomas under the guidance of the AARI scientists. Each year 8 or 10 graduates join our staff. We are very proud with the latest development. The Institute has set up jointly with Germany the Russian - German Research Laboratory for Polar and Ocean Studies named after O. YU SCHMIDT, a distinguished Russian polar scientist. Thanks to a Fellowship Programme, this Laboratory manages to fund the research work of 30 researchers, two thirds of whom are young scientists.

         -And a traditional end-of-the-year question: what was the most important event for the Institute in 2000?

        -We managed to significantly expand our data banks with the data on the Arctic environment. The AARI scientists participated in seven Arctic expeditions carrying out a large observational programme. We carry out observations in all the Russian Arctic Seas, and on the islands of Severnaya Zemlya, in Chukotka and Yakutiya. To be specific I would like to mention the Akademik Fedorov mission to the Arctic Ocean, (to the area of the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility), organised by the RF Ministry of Natural Resources, the expedition had a comprehensive programme aiming at drawing an exterior border of the Russian Siberian Shelf.