A joint Russian-American expedition, AVLAP/NABOS-2015, has returned to Arkhangelsk after completing a month's worth of climate change studies aboard the Akademik Tryoshnikov research vessel, Arctic-Info reports. The ship belongs to the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) of the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, or RosGidroMet.

"It was a successful and productive expedition in every respect. And it will provide lots of materials for further research," said Igor Ashik, the expedition's leader and head of the AARI Oceanology Department.

During the expedition, the scientists managed to retrieve eight of the nine marker buoys deployed two years ago to measure sea water temperature and salinity as well as the speed and direction of currents. The data will be forwarded to research centers where it will be processed. Thirteen new marker buoys were deployed in key areas where water masses from the Atlantic mix with the Arctic Ocean, influencing the global climate.

Also deployed were 94 water probes, three drifting profilographs, one ice buoy, two drifting weather buoys with multi-parameter sensors and 12 simple automated buoys.

"The next expedition of this kind, the third in the series, is scheduled for 2017," Mr Ashik told reporters.