MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 scientific expedition arranged 39 groups for 'long-term monitoring' - scientific observations will be conducted in Russia's remote areas, the expedition's headquarters reported, adding the plan is to organize 77 groups of the kind.

"On the 30th anniversary of the work to create regular environmental monitoring methods, the Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 expedition reported 39 arranged groups of local residents in the North, Siberia and the Far East, who will be involved in regular scientific ecology observations and will participate in sociological studies focusing on modern communities of the North's indigenous peoples," the expedition's representatives said.

Some groups have been created in areas that the expedition has not reached yet - in the Irkutsk, Chukotka, Kamchatka, and Khabarovsk Regions. According to scientists, groups in those regions are preparing for the arrival of the main expedition, and after the expedition leaves, they will continue observations and studies. The expedition plans to organize 77 groups totally - according to the number of studied regions. The research program, involving long-term monitoring groups, is designed for 5 years - until August 15, 2029.

"The long-term monitoring groups face the task to help research teams to place, maintain equipment, take certain measurements and monitor regularly the assigned research sites. Of course, real instrumental measurements are made only by specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences' institutes, but without involvement of local specialists and assistants, such large-scale observations would have been impossible," said Oleg Volkov, leader of the Arctic Resource Center Foundation.

On May 8, scientists celebrated the 30th anniversary of the work to create environmental monitoring methods. The formal beginning of the work was May 8, 1994, when Professor Boris Kochurov defended his doctoral thesis. Since then, he continues to manage the research team and a scientific school of structural environmental monitoring.

About the expedition

The Clean Arctic - Vostok-77 is the largest expedition in terms of the number of participants among continental high-latitude scientific expeditions in the entire history of the North's studies. It kicked off from Murmansk in August, 2023, and over one year its 700 participants from more than 20 centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences and from federal universities will conduct 200 studies on routes stretching for 12,000 kilometers. The expedition participants will also test Russian equipment, communications equipment, and insulation materials under a program to replace earlier imported goods for the country's Arctic Zone.

The expedition's main part is working now in Yakutia's north, and a vehicle testing group is about to wrap up tests of two Arhant snowmobile models and continues testing an Arctic-version all-terrain vehicle based on URSA-Motors.