An
international agreement permits a number of nations to maintain
stations on Spitzbergen for scientific purposes. The Russian
station is the largest and has operated over the longest period
with the largest staff.
Mail
from the Barentsburg station is delivered by aircraft or ships
to a Russian post office for regular service.
|
The Soviet - American Oceanographic
Expedition
The
oceanographic studies continued during 1990 using separate
vessels due to limited funding by the Russians.
The
University of Alaska research vessel R/V ALPHA HELIX
carried the American party in the Chuckchi Sea.
|
First Arctic Cruise to the North
Pole
The
atomic icebreaker ROSSIJA sailed to the geographic
North Pole in August 1990 as an experiment in the use of the
vessels for tourist cruises.
|
Amst Team
|
|
An
airport meteorological synoptic team was based at the Lavrentia
Polar Station in 1990.
|
SNOP - Soviet / Norwegian Barents
Sea Study
1990
The
Russian research vessel PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKY
and the Norwegian ship LANCE conducted studies
with the icebreaker OTTO SCHMIDT in Fram Strait
between Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land.
|
Their
information was transmitted by satellite after coordinating
with the ice stations. They identified icebergs and assembled
general information on ice conditions. This was projected
to last from 1988 to 1992.
|
Russian AARI Satellite Relay Program
Ground
stations were established at Chokurdah for high altitude studies,
and a hydro-meteorological station adjoined it. Two separate
crews dispatched their mail through the post office at Chokurdah.
|
Hydro-Meteorological
Station
High Altitude
Station |
CHOEX 90
|
|
|
| At
the conclusion of the expedition work, the American team was put
ashore at Dutch Harbor where they were taken aboard the R/V ALPHA
HELIX and carried to Seward. |
Hydrometeorological
observations in the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Seas during 1990
was a joint program renewing the cooperative information exchange
that had been terminated in 1977. |
Russian Ice Ships Support the Polar
Supply System
|
|
|
| Ice-strengthened
ships, like the M/V KAPITAN DANILKIN from the Murmansk
Shipping Company, provided support for the polar stations and
programs. Commercial icebreakers, like the KRASSIN,
made it possible for service to be provided virtually year round. |
The
KRASSIN meets a supply ship in the Kara Sea.
|
(Exhibition
pieces courtesy of George Hall)
