ST. PETERSBURG, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russian polar explorers started air reconnaissance to select an ice floe for the "Severny Polius (North Pole)-33" drifting station, Aleksandr Danilov, research director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
According to him, "Academician Fyodorov", a research and expedition ship carrying personnel and equipment for "SP-33", has already approached the landing area.
"Unfortunately, the weather in the area is not too favourable. The temperature is four below Centigrade, the wind is 12 meters per second and there is a cyclone. Visibility is not very good, so helicopter reconnaissance will take several days", - Danilov emphasized.
10 ice floes - potential "candidates" for the drifting station - were selected on the basis of satellite data, he said.
Scientists plan to make the final decision which ice floe will house "SP-33" in one or two days, when helicopter reconnaissance will be over.
"Academician Fyodorov" left St. Petersburg for the Arctic on August 10. Apart from 12 winterers and the crew, she has 35 representatives of Russian research organizations on board.
"Severny Polius-33", a Russian drifting research station, will be opened in early September to the north of the Novosibirsk Islands - presumably in the zone between 82 and 83 degrees north latitude.
"SP-33" is expected to function for two years. Its personnel will continue the traditional studies of Central Arctic drifting ice, initiated in the USSR as early as 1937 with the launch of "Severny Polius-1", the first drifting station in the world.
