The Lapex-2015/Transdrift-XXIII expedition, part of the Laptev Sea System Russian-German program, has come to an end. Six specialists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring took part in the expedition between September 25 and October 1, the AARI press service reported.

The work was conducted on the shelf of the Laptev Sea aboard the Viktor Buinitsky research ship. German scientists were unable to participate in the expedition for organizational reasons and the expedition's timeframe was reduced.

During the expedition, the researchers raised four submerged buoy stations that were installed in the central and northwestern part of the sea shelf in the summer of 2014. In addition, they obtained yearly data on the speed and direction of currents, the temperature, salinity and thickness of the ice cover, the content of suspended matter and chlorophyll-a fluorescence.

These data will be utilized in R&D projects as part of Russian-German collaboration, as well as in monitoring the Arctic Ocean under the Federal Service's programs.