Russia has launched its North Pole 2015 drifting station, RIA Novosti reports, citing Tatyana Bayeva, press secretary of the Nenets Autonomous Area governor.

The station opened with an official ceremony attended by a delegation of Russian officials led by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the State Commission for Arctic Development. The delegation also included Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi and Special Presidential Envoy for Cooperation in the Arctic and the Antarctic Artur Chilingarov. Nenets Autonomous Area Governor Igor Koshin also attended the ceremony.   

For three months, the station's 18-member team, which includes 12 scientists, will conduct comprehensive hydrological, meteorological, and magnetometric research, in addition to studying drift ice.