The expedition “Arctic Floating University” reached Novaya Zemlya
The second voyage of the «Arctic Floating University — 2013» is going on. On July 10 at midnight the vessel «Professor Molchanov» reached the Cape Desire on the northern coast of Novaya Zemlya. Base of the National Park «Russian Arctic» will become a residence for two expedition members (Denis Korobitsyn and Vladimir Terekhin). They will stay here for two weeks, their objective is to install an experimental setup of alternative energy on the Cape Desire.
People on the Arctic Stations usually use diesel and petrol generators, so the installation of a windmill can become a new promising direction of energy supply. It is still unknown how the complex will operate in Arctic conditions and how it will be mounted on the stony ground of the island. But there is chance that in a week we will see the system in action and get an opportunity to boil a teakettle using the energy produced by this device.
As soon as the ship weighed its anchor, the oceanographic group began to work on the cut. This is a series of points where the information about the hydrological condition of the Kara Sea is gathered. The ship stops at the designed points and lies in the drift. At this time the scientists take samples of water from different depths, define the temperature, pressure and electrical conductivity (salinity) of seawater, pH and dissolved oxygen. Then the water samples from different depths are passed to the scientists from hydrochemical and hydrobiological blocks for further study. The meteorological block also conducts work. Each oceanographic station conducts hydrooptical measurements of photosynthetically active radiation on water surface.
July 11 the crew received a forecast from the Center of Space Monitoring of the Arctic of different ice conditions near the island of Wiese. Everyone understood that the landing was not possible because of the ice barrier. At 15 o’clock captain Victor Loschevsky declared by the speakerphone: «On the right side of the ship you can see the island Wiese!» The island was covered with fog and only showed the snow-white shores.