Tiksi Clean Air Facility

Yegor Borisov, Artur Chillingarov, and Vladimir Putin visit the site prior to the Grand Opening. (Photo courtesy YSIA)

U.S. and Russian officials on their way to the ceremony. (Photo courtesy YSIA)

Grand Opening of Tiksi Hydrometeorological Climate Observatory in Russia


August 24, 2010

NOAA and Russia's Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) will host a grand opening ceremony for the Tiksi Hydrometeorological Climate Observatory on 25 August 2010, in Tiksi, Russia. NOAA, NSF, Roshydromet and the Finnish Meteorological Institute have been collaborating for the past four years to finance and equip this remote site, which is the first major Arctic climate station that has been developed through an international cooperation. State-of-the-art equipment installed at this site will take long-term measurements, and the data will be made freely available to the international community. Along with the U.S., Russian scientists and Finnish scientists who were instrumental planning and installing the site, attendees will include Simon Stephenson of the National Science Foundation, Cristina Hansell of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Jack Hayes of NOAA/NWS, and a delegation of Russian officials. Yegor Borisov, President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Artur Chillingarov, Special Representative of the Russian Federation on International co-operation in Arctic and Antarctica, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Tiksi Observatory on August 23rd, prior to the Grand Opening.

In 2005 the Roshydromet Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) submitted an Expression of Intent (EoI) to the International Polar Year (IPY) entitled "Developing the Atmospheric Observatory of Climatic Monitoring in Tiksi." This EoI was integrated in the "International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere" activity, which coordinates monitoring activities between Observatories in the Arctic regions (http://www.IASOA.org). In 2006, NOAA and Roshydromet held the first official meeting to develop a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Cooperation in the Areas of Meteorology, Hydrology and Oceanography. Establishing a Modern Weather Station and Research Observatory in Tiksi, Russia was defined under this MOU and approved at the second official meeting between delegates of NOAA and Roshydromet in 2008.

The Tiksi observatory is a critical part of an international network of polar stations for monitoring long-term climate change in the Arctic. International cooperation and collaboration is a crucial component in the set up and operation of remote field sites such as Tiksi, and for successful and comprehensive global climate research.


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