Scientists from Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed Russia’s first system for monitoring climate-active substances in the Arctic Ocean, local media reported on Friday.
“The system integrates both shipborne and autonomous environmental observation platforms. A key component of this newly developed system is the Sea-Air-Wave Station (SAWS), which was successfully tested during last year’s Arctic expedition,” TASS news agency quoted the press service of the institute as saying.
“Measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations demonstrated the high efficiency of the gas analyzers installed on SAWS,” it said.
The station has undergone successful testing in Arctic conditions and its configuration will serve as the basis for a network of buoys in the subpolar Atlantic and the Arctic, it said.
According to the institute, the system will enable efficient monitoring of all parameters of the surface atmosphere and ocean layer, providing critical data for assessing regional gas and energy flux balances in the ocean.
The data collected from the hydrometeorological station have, for the first time, allowed researchers to obtain quantitative characteristics of energy and greenhouse gas flux variability between the ocean and the atmosphere in real time.
The Arctic is often referred to as the “engine of global weather” due to its heightened sensitivity to climate change.
The ocean serves as a long-term heat reservoir, absorbing approximately 92 percent of excess heat entering the atmosphere due to human activities.
The project, approved by the Russian government in 2022, is being conducted by six scientific consortia dedicated to monitoring processes on land, in oceans and forest ecosystems.
