(Alexander Stelliferovsky/RIA Novosti, 10 October 2010) -- On board Icebreaker Rossiya in the Chukchi Sea - An ice floe for a Russian drifting station in the Arctic was found, expedition head Artur Chilingarov said on Sunday. It is located in the Chukchi Sea at 76.00.5 °N 175.34 °W and is 8 km by 12 km. It meets all the basic requirements.

SP-38 head Tomash Petrovsky, who had surveyed the ice floe from the helicopter and then on a snow vehicle, said the ice field was good and a site for the station would be chosen later, after a more detailed examination.

The expedition is currently on board the Rossiya nuclear-powered icebreaker that will deliver the SP-38 with 15 explorers to the ice floe for a year-long stint. Helicopter flights resumed in the early hours of Sunday after the first day of aerial reconnaissance showed no suitable ice fields. During the two rounds of helicopter flights over an area of about 200 by 100 km a total of 12 ice floes in Ice Field No. 1 were surveyed, but none could meet the basic requirements, especially for thickness.

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(RIA Novosti, 10 October 2010) -- The first day of aerial reconnaissance in the Arctic showed there were no suitable ice floes for a Russian drifting station to land on, expedition head Artur Chilingarov said on Saturday. The expedition is currently on board the Rossiya nuclear-powered icebreaker that will deliver the SP-38 polar station with 15 explorers to a drifting ice floe for a year-long stint.

During the two rounds of helicopter flights over an area of about 200 by 100 km a total of 12 ice floes in Ice Field No. 1 were surveyed, but none could meet the basic requirements, especially for thickness. They also lacked relatively even sections to build a landing strip on. Although high-resolution satellite imagery of the area was available it could not be completely relied on, Chilingarov said.

“You see how important it is to visit and inspect each potential site,” he said. The outcome was not unusual as Arctic sea ice had melted over the past summer to cover the third-smallest area on record, Vladimir Sokolov, deputy head the expedition, said. The Rossiya is headed for the next ice field it should reach shortly before daybreak for helicopter flights to resume.

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