Ice Base Cape Baranova
Primary CryoNet Station Information

The station "Cape Baranova" was initially organized in 1986 by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) of Roshydroment as a research base to perform and to support ship and air-borne High-Arctic expeditions. The station was closed in 1991 due to lack of funding and reopened in August 2013 as a research stationary base "Ice Base Cape Baranova". The station is situated near the Cape Baranova, Bolshevik island, at a sufficiently high (30 m) shore of the Shokalskij Strait, separated the Bolshevik and October Revolution islands, both belonging to the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Station coordinates are 79°16'N, 101°45'E. The Strait near the station is 40 km wide and up to 350 meters deep. Adjacent area is characterized by a wide range of natural ice: fast and drifting sea ice, numerous icebergs, lakes, river ice, and significant (up to 800 m) dome-shaped glaciers. The area near the station is replete with numerous lakes and pronounced polar desert landscape. Fauna is represented by polar bears, foxes, polar wolves, hares, deer, seals, lemmings and numerous colonies of marine and terrestrial migratory birds.
Station is characterized by long polar night from 22 October to 22 February and polar day from April 22 to August 22. The air temperature in the summer (June-August) is from 0° to 4°C. In winter (October-April) the temperature range is from -25° to -45° C. Station area is characterized by sustained winds of predominantly southerly direction at an average speed of 10-15 m/s. During the transition period, the wind speed can reach 50 m/s. Soil in the vicinity of the station is mostly composed from rocky shale. The depth of summer thawing does not exceed 30 - 40 cm.
The main areas of work planned and partially initiated on the station "Ice Base Cape Baranova" are: routine and special year-round meteorological, sea-ice, oceanographic, hydrological, geophysical, glaciological and biological observations, implementation of a comprehensive monitoring of the state and pollution of the environment, studies of gas exchange in the atmosphere-ice-ocean and the atmosphere-land, completion of special experimental work aimed to investigate the processes that determine climate change in the high latitudes of the Arctic, and the assessment of their impact on the environment and the ecosystem of the Arctic region of Russia. In addition, the station "Ice Base Cape Baranova" will be used as a site to support logistics for research and observations in the high Arctic, including safety of operation of drifting station "North Pole."

Borodkin V.A., Makshtas A.P., Bogorodsky P.V. Coastal fast ice in the Shokalski Strait. Ice and Snow. 2016;56(4):525-532. (In Russ.) DOI:10.15356/2076-6734-2016-4-525-532