ARKHANGELSK, October 19. /TASS/. Participants in the Northern Arctic Federal University’s Arctic Floating University project will survey the Spitsbergen Archipelago in 2019, the University’s press service said.
"We plan to have a big complex of sea surveys, to make a few calls on Spitsbergen’s reference points," the press service quoted the federal university’s Deputy Head on International Cooperation and the expedition’s leader Konstantin Zaikov as saying. "The expedition has not visited the archipelago for a few years: we made surveys in 2013-2014, and now we need to update the earlier data."
During the expedition, the project’s participants will continue studies related to the environment’s pollution with micro plastics, and the atmosphere’s pollution with highly volatile substances. The expedition will continue for 20 days - from June 22 through to July 11.
Traditionally, the project’s participants are not only scientists, but also post-graduates and students. Filing of applications began on Thursday, and the Floating University’s participants will be announced in February, 2019.
The Arctic Floating University is a joint project of the Northern Arctic Federal University and the Northern Office for Hydrometeorology and Environment Monitoring. The expeditions on board the Professor Molchanov research vessel feature Russia’s leading scientists. Students learn how to work in the Arctic field conditions, and also listen to a big course of lectures.
In 2018, the Floating University traveled to the White, Barents and Kara Seas, most surveys were on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago’s north-eastern coast.