ST. PETERSBURG, July 27. /TASS/. The North Pole - 41 expedition onboard the North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform may be completed before end of year 2023, Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI, St. Petersburg) Alexander Makarov told reporters.

The platform has been drifting for more than nine months, he added.

"We can't say for sure yet - whether it is a week or a month when the platform will be able to return. According to our calculations, the station may reach clean water this year. The drift depends on many factors, first of all on atmospheric circulations that are changing quite quickly. We think the drift may end within a few months. In case of objective changes, the station may operate until the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024," he said.

The North Pole - 41 station's drifting direction corresponds to the planned one: the station has been drifting freely from the New Siberian Islands via the polar region towards the Atlantic Ocean's North European basin. As the platform enters ice-free waters of the Greenland Sea, it will bring back the polar explorers to Murmansk.

Presently, the North Pole - 41 station is located north of the Spitsbergen Archipelago, at about 83-84 degrees north latitude. From the starting point near the New Siberian Islands, the expedition has moved by almost 1,300 km, having covered a distance of about 2,700 km.

"It is very important that the very concept of this ice-resistant platform has turned out to be absolutely successful. The kind of work we are doing now would have been impossible if done on ice. The North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform project has definitely met our expectations," AARI's director said.

About expedition

The North Pole - 41 expedition continues the program of complex drifting research in the Arctic's high latitudes, founded by Soviet scientists. The world's first North Pole ("North Pole - 1") polar research drifting Arctic station began working on May 21, 1937. As many as 40 such expeditions have been organized.

In 2013, a team of scientists was evacuated from the North Pole - 40 drifting station, and the program was suspended for almost 10 years. In 2022, the program of drifting Arctic stations was resumed at a new technological level - the expedition is supported by the North Pole ice-resistant platform.

The North Pole, the world's first ice-resistant self-propelled platform, is designed for year-round expeditions in the Arctic Ocean's northern latitudes. The platform does not require an icebreaker to sail to a designated work location. It may drift in the water area for up to two years to return to port on its own. The vessel takes 14 crew and 34 scientific personnel. The platform is equipped with an onboard scientific complex of 15 laboratories, a mobile field camp for accommodation on ice floes.