ST. PETERSBURG, August 14. /TASS/. The Akademik Tryoshnikov scientific diesel-electric research vessel reached successfully the North Pole drifting platform in the Arctic Ocean delivering a new team of researchers and equipment, necessary to continue the North Pole - 41 expedition, press service of the expedition's organizer, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI, St. Petersburg), told reporters.

"AARI's two research/survey vessels - the Akademik Tryoshnikov and the North Pole ice-resistant platform - have met in the Arctic sea at a point with coordinates 83.35°N and 50.41°E near the North Pole - 41 polar station, which has been drifting in the high latitudes for more than nine months. The vessel has brought a shift of scientific personnel, equipment and food products," the press service said.

It has taken the Akademik Tryoshnikov four days to sail from Murmansk to the drifting platform. The weather conditions were favorable. A Kamov Ka-32 helicopter was involved in laying the route. At the destination point, the Akademik Tryoshnikov berthed the ice-resistant platform's side.

For ten days, the Akademik Tryoshnikov will be drifting together with the North Pole platform. Scientists will use this time to conduct joint works - to inspect conditions of drifting buoys at the mesoscale test area and to install additional drifting equipment to the north from that area. Data from drifting buoys is used to refine forecasts of ice conditions along on the Northern Sea Route.

"Not far from the station there are several vast ice fields. If the helicopter reconnaissance confirms this, our specialists will pick the most stable ice floe for a scientific camp, and we will berth the North Pole ice-resistant platform to a new field. By doing this we will have longer drifting terms to collect more information on the changing Arctic climate," AARI's Director Alexander Marakov told reporters.

Earlier, AARI's press service said about the plan, under which the Akademik Tryoshnikov would deliver five scientists and 16 crew members, cargo, and equipment to the North Pole drifting platform - an automatic multichannel Skalar analyzer of the SAN++ series that can determine biogenic components in water; CME 4311-LTWP broadband seismometers, METR 03 LTWP angular seismometers, and a water vapor radiometer. By using these devices, manufactured in Russia, scientists will have much wider opportunities to study the rapidly changing Arctic conditions.

About expedition

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

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

The North Pole is world's first ice-resistant self-propelled platform, designed for year-round expeditions in the Arctic Ocean's northern latitudes. It does not require an icebreaker to sail to a designated area, it can drift for up to two years, and to return to port afterwards. The vessel takes 14 crew members 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.