North Pole-36 (Russian:Северный полюс-36, СП-36) was the 36thRussianmanned drifting station, primarily used forArctic research from September 2008 until August 2009.
The station was opened on September 7, 2008.
The primary objective of the station was to improve the quality ofweather forecasts and to study global processes ofclimate change. Work was carried out on environment monitoring, and research in the fields ofmeteorology,oceanology,glaciology, andaerology was carried out.[1]
The expedition consisted of 18polar explorers, severaldogs, and more than 150 tons of cargo.[2] Thestation-master wasYuri Katraev. NP-36 station settled down on a piece ofsea ice that was approximately 6 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi) across. At the moment of disembarkation the station was in "the Hollow of submariners" betweenWrangel Island and theNorth Pole. The vesselAkademik Fyodorov carried out the delivery of the expedition to the ice.[1][3]
The station was removed with thenuclear icebreakerNSYamal in theArctic Ocean at the end of August 2009. The evacuation of the station from the drifting ice floe took three days of continuous work. The chief of high-latitude arctic expeditionsVladimir Sokolov supervised the work.[2]
