MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS Correspondent Irina Skalina/. Maxim Chervyakov leads the Department of Meteorology and Climate at the Saratov State University. For 10 years he has been organizing in his city the Arctic Academy for school students from across Russia, training specialists to work in high latitudes. On Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land during the Arctic Floating University expeditions, organized by the Northern Arctic Federal University and Sevhydromet (the national hydrometeorology service's Northern branch), together with the scientist we explored snowfields and caught unique atmospheric events.
Fata morgana, ghost in fog and tube clouds
For Maxim Chervyakov, the white rainbow is one of the most vivid impressions in marine expeditions to the Arctic. It is as rare as a polar bear, and the impressions are quite similar. The expedition's all members rush to the deck to take pictures until the rainbow disappears.
- When I first saw it in 2022, I went crazy with joy! - Maxim said. - I've shown to students the photographs, pictures of various rare phenomena. But no photo can give a complete impression, of course. When you see it live, it's a completely different thing, I was literally jumping with delight!
Back then, in the White Sea, all the expedition was jumping. However, not out of delight, but in attempts to see the "Brocken ghost", which sometimes accompanies the white rainbow. It is the shadow of an observing man, in the fog, and it really looks like a ghost. It can be unnaturally large, and seeing it is possible only when you are in motion. At the same time, the sun should shine from above, and the fog should be below the observer. The name of this weather phenomenon comes from the Brocken Peak in Germany. A traveler, climbing to the top, got into just the same conditions and could see a man looking like a ghost in the clouds was repeating his movements.
Without Maxim, we all would've been looking only upwards - at the white rainbow. In 2023, at about the same place in the White Sea, the Arctic Floating University expedition was again lucky to see a white rainbow. It was very bright and spectacular. The ghost also appeared there, but it was pale and we could see it for only a short time. That part of the sea is unique, Maxim said. Within just one day there were several rare phenomena: a light, or solar, column (a visual phenomenon that is a vertical strip of light stretching from the sun during sunset or sunrise), a fata morgana (a rare complex optical phenomenon consisting of several forms of mirages, where distant objects are seen repeatedly and with a variety of distortion), a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (a phenomenon in the collision of two media, for example, water and air, and at the points they contact due to extremely different speeds - higher wind speed and lower wave speed - appear crests) and rolling clouds (a horizontal cloud in the form of an oblong tube, in which the illusion of rotation is created). Enthusiasts are hunting for rolling clouds, like, for example, for the northern lights. They may be seen at very few locations.
- I photographed the sun path at night, though not on the water - in the sky, - I showed the picture to Maxim. Here, I need to explain that in June and July nights in the White Sea are white, that is the daylight is round the clock.
- It is a light, or solar, column that is formed due to cirrus clouds, - the scientist explained. - I've seen it too, but decided not to wake folks at one at night.
Students have seen Fata Morgana through binoculars from the bridge. In the air, above the real forest, all of a sudden appeared the same fir trees, though they were slightly longer. The students immediately rushed after the teacher, and he explained it was a mirage, it happens not only in deserts, but also over the sea. As for the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, only an experienced meteorologist, who knew where and when to look, managed to catch it.
- These are clouds, and their shape resembles a ridge of waves coming ashore.…
Steps into the Arctic
As we were talking, students from time to time come up to Maxim to show another photo or to ask about peculiarities of their observations. During the Arctic Floating University voyages, research does not stop for a minute, and the meteorology group monitors clouds round the clock. The group features meteorology students as well as students in biology, ocean studies, hydrology, and in technical aspects. They said, that weather kitchen was very breathtaking. As for Maxim - his assistants are never too many.
His first trip to study the Arctic was when the young man was a second-year student: on the Yamal he took atmospheric air samples, and at the same time communicated with local residents, learned Nenets words, and looked into local customs and traditions. When a post-graduate, he studied how to measure the solar radiation and its effect on the planet's climate. At that time, he attended a forum organized by the Association of Polar Explorers. There, he said, he quite unexpectedly won a grant to promote the Arctic in a completely non-Arctic city of Saratov. The project was dubbed the Arctic Academy, and it has continued for 10 years.
- At first I wondered: how comes Saratov and the Arctic? - he said. - So, we started looking for polar explorers in Saratov. We were surprised to learn there were people who write about the Arctic, who make films about the Arctic, who have been there, for example, Director Vladislav Mikosha. He is from Saratov, a director, a documentary cinematographer, he has filmed the demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the opening of VDNH, the rescue of the Chelyuskin crew, and Valery Chkalov's flight across the North Pole to America. We've organized broadcasts.
Thus, in Saratov has developed a community of people interested in the Arctic, and Maxim was gradually developing a scientific direction. Together with students he studied meteorology regimes in the Arctic and Antarctic, the peculiarities of climate change in high latitudes, they explored the atmosphere and ice. Maxim has developed a course of lectures on meteorology and the climate of the Arctic, defended his thesis on satellite climatology. His supervisor, Doctor of Technical Sciences Yuri Sklyarov, at the Saratov University developed unique equipment to study the solar radiation. He was a world-renowned scientist, and he invited Maxim to study the satellite monitoring of the Earth's radiation balance.
The process of climate research via satellites has given birth to new directions. Maxim and his colleagues began to observe snowfields from space. Snowfields are accumulations of snow in places protected from wind and sun. They stay after the surrounding snow cover has melted. Snowfields can persist for years. Watching such formations from space cannot be compared to exploring them on the spot. Which is necessary. This is why Maxim decided to apply for the Arctic Floating University expedition.
- To understand what kind of object we are dealing with on a satellite image, it is necessary to understand clearly on the spot how thick it is, what its parameters are, how the density is changing.
Maxim headed for the polar archipelagos to select snowfields, which would be further on monitored from space.
Snowfield as weather chronicles
So, Maxim has been to the Arctic for three years, although it is a real test for him: he does not tolerate pitching well. In fact, it's almost impossible to predict how a person will react to the sea. Some, despite a huge sailing experience, cannot get off bed in pitching. Others, taking first sea voyages, may enjoy lunch in the strongest storm.
- I had competed in regattas, but these were sailing yachts, they are small and fast. You don't really feel much there, because you are always doing something very quickly. Feelings on the ship turned out to be completely different, - Maxim laughed: when he was about to leave for the first Arctic voyage, for some reason he thought it would be very cold on the polar islands. - I expected there true snowstorms, blizzards. And, despite the fact that I study the climate, I did not take into account that period of the summer Arctic weather. Thus, back then I did pack something I never needed.
On the shore, the "snowfield" team normally feels even hot. At first they need to find a snowfield, then to reach it quickly, then to drill, dig - as deep as possible - to assess its conditions. Researchers describe snow at different levels, they mark layers with soil, ice crusts, they record how and when they manage to get to water or soil. Additionally, they need to understand what is around: it can be the shadow of a cliff, under which the snow mass is hiding from the sun, or it can be a slope or cornice, where a snowdrift has every chance to survive the summer, or even a few summers.
Snowfields in the Arctic are used to interpret climate variability over short periods of time. Compared to glaciers, they are small and react quickly to changes.
By the way, in the field, or in our case rather in the tundra or an Arctic desert, researchers may find unexpected ideas and objects for studies. On the Vaygach, Masim did not plan to work on snowfields. But a problem there is ice crusts, which at times even reindeer, which are bred on the island, cannot break through.
- Snowfields are chronicles of such ice crusts that were during the winter. They prompt the recurrence of such adverse events, - Maxim said. - They may be a monitoring instrument.
Beauty of sciences
On board the ship most intensive work is during oceanology sections. A section is a line of points with fixed coordinates, where samples are taken. A group of meteorology experts on the section from the Salm Island of Franz Josef Land to Cape Zhelaniya of Novaya Zemlya decided to record a video at each point to post it on social networks. Near the Salm everyone was cheerful and joyful, the sun was shining, and the sea was smooth as a mirror. But on Novaya Zemlya, the sea was stormy, the sky was gloomy, the scientists were far from cheerful, they spent almost two days without sleep. Maxim always tries to use every opportunity to promote the Arctic science. During the voyage, he kept a diary for the Saratov University, saying, well Maxim is well alive, practically not freezing and says hi to everyone.
- We try to tell young people most interestingly and easily about what sciences are, what meteorology is, what polar meteorology is about. We try to show the beauty and diversity of various natural sciences and how they are applied in the world.
Lectures, meetings and film screenings are held for this purpose. For example, the first run of In Love With Arctic film directed by Anastasia Lomakina about a floating university was held in Arkhangelsk, and on the next day it was shown in Saratov. The theater was sold out, and polar explorers came to share Arctic experience.
The Arctic Academy project is also expanding, nowadays it includes an international research competition for school students on Arctic topics. The project offers various sections: ecology of the Arctic, its seas, weather and climate, flora and fauna, ethnography and many others. In winter, the university organizes an improvised polar station, where students put up a tent, observe snow and weather characteristics. The efforts bring results. The competitions winners receive additional points to enter the university, and they can imagine where they will work after graduation. Some of the graduates have left Saratov to explore the Arctic on the Chukotka Peninsula and Spitsbergen or even to explore the Antarctica.
The highest points
As for Maxim, he plans to continue the Arctic research, though this time in the stratosphere, where sudden stratospheric warmings happen. The stratosphere begins at the 12th-14th kilometer after the troposphere, where we live. Its regular temperature is minus 40-70 degrees, with periodical jumps - the temperature may rise by 40-50 degrees per day. Reasons for this phenomena have been studied only poorly.
- As you can understand, instrumental observations in those layers are very few, and not all satellites can study the stratosphere, and radiosondes do not always make it to there. A Master degree student now is joining a post-graduate course, and we will continue this topic.
Maxim has a research plan already.
- We have radiosonde data. I've been an aerologist for a long time, launching radiosondes. They are small meteorological stations, they transmit temperature, humidity and other data almost every second. There are many such stations around the world, and about 100 in Russia. All the data is archived and then, using the software we make, we analyze these results.
The scientist dreams to conquer the highest polar peaks: in Greenland and on Novaya Zemlya. Getting to them is much more difficult than, say, to the Kilimanjaro, which he has already conquered. The experience was very interesting from the professional point of view, he said. The glaciers on that African mountain are rather not like streams of ice, but like individual icebergs, but in the mountains. Maxim's hobby is to conquer the highest points of countries, continents and islands. This is how he has found out that there is a pharmacy on the highest peak in Palestine.
- The pharmacist there wondered: guys, please explain why there's been such attention to my pharmacy lately? We tell him: your pharmacy is on the highest point in Palestine. The man has never know about it. But when he did, he allowed us to climb up to its roof for great images.
In Saratov, the scientist continues to discover additional connections between the Volga Region and the Arctic. The famous Norwegian polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, representing the League of Nations, rescued the region's residents from starvation in the 1920s. In the Saratov Region were born Mikhail Sorokin, a captain of the Krasin icebreaker, doctor Viktor Katin-Yartsev, a member of the Russian polar expedition of Baron Eduard Toll, film director Alexander Zguridi, who filmed among other objects the Arctic underwater worlds. Polar explorer Igor Smilevets in the city of Engels writes books about polar explorers.
- We even have our own icebreaker - the Saratov, which unfortunately is sunken on the Volga near the bridge, - he continued. - The icebreaker was the only one in Russia to ensure the Ryazan-Ural Railway operation. Our dream is to lift this icebreaker.
At the Arctic Forum in St. Petersburg, Maxim shared the experience of how to talk about the Arctic in a non-Arctic region to keep the audience interested.
His answer to a question whether he plans to participate in expeditions to polar archipelagos is a smile.
- When I return to Saratov, then in after a while I open the photos, start looking: well, I've been to the Arctic, but the feeling is it was a dream. Sure, I'd love to, and the university supports me, allows me to go. Sometimes though they would joke: Hey, make sure you don't stay there in that Arkhangelsk!