Russia is modernising its meteorological stations along the Northern Sea Route

Russia is upgrading meteorological stations above the Arctic Circle along the Northern Sea Route before expected shipping, the Barents Observer reports. The programme appears to span the Russian Arctic, which makes up 53% of the coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Russian officials name the route as the chief reason.

In September, the federal service Roshydromet said on social media that the aerological station on Kotelny Island is being fully modernised. A service building, a diesel and gas generator building, a garage and five fuel tanks have been built at the new site. The station is in the Republic of Sakha. The East Siberian Sea lies to one side and the Laptev Sea to the other. The Severny Klever military air base is also there. Open sources give its main task as collecting pressure, temperature, humidity and wind data.

Speaking in Sarov in August, Vladimir Putin said climate change may sharply increase transport volumes on the route. He added that even if it does not, Russia has eight nuclear icebreakers. He said no other country has such a fleet, and that four more are planned in the near future.

In December 2022, Alexander Makarov, who heads the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, said seven drifting weather stations were in place and 42 more would be deployed in 2023, a sixfold increase. He said they would give hourly direct observations of ice and weather across the route zone. The institute said Russia was due to build a high-precision network at sea and on the coast by 2024.

Aleksander Kozlov, the minister for natural resources and the environment, said earlier that Russia has 240 meteorological stations in the Arctic: 27 give aerological data, 33 cover hydrology and 172 cover meteorology. Interfax says most are outdated. Kozlov said at least 25 more automatic stations are needed, planned for after 2024, to improve forecast accuracy by 4 to 6%.

In June 2022, Vedomosti reported that 49 stations between Svalbard and Wrangel Island were being modernised. Automated complexes were delivered by every available means of transport, among them Mikhail Somov and Professor Molchanov, both research vessels.