NSR Shipping Traffic – Research activities on the NSR in 2019

Research activities in the seas of the Northern Sea Route remained at approximately the same level as in 2018. The research took 22 vessels (21 in 2018), which made 93 repositions between work locations and passages between port and work areas (85 in 2018).

Among the companies that have shown the greatest activity are Hydrographic Enterprise, Russian Academy of Sciences, Roshydromet, MAGE, SMNG. The very first research vessel entered the NSR on June 30 (“Geolog Dmitriy Nalivkin”, MAGE), the same vessel was the last to leave the NSR on November 22. Thus, this vessel devoted its research to the entire summer navigation period. The expedition “Transarctic-2019” was one of the main events in the field of Arctic sea research. As part of the expedition, it was possible to obtain unique data on the processes taking place in the Arctic ocean and the atmosphere of the region. A deeper study of the mechanisms of formation of water masses, the impact of climate change at high latitudes and contribute to solving the problems of integrated development of the Arctic.

In addition to research activities, supply of polar stations was also provided. For almost three months, food, fuel and lubricants and other supplies were delivered to the remote stations of the Northern Directorate of Roshydromet, located on the coast and islands of the White, Barents and Kara Seas, Yakutsk weather control and environmental monitoring service in the Laptev Sea, Chukotka weather control and environmental monitoring service in the East Siberian Sea. Besides the logistic support during the voyage, the stations made a change of polar explorers, updated the software of automatic meteorological complexes and stations, and made repairs of power equipment.