Arctic Exploration Research Articles

К вопросу о моделировании системы обеспечения безопасности человека в российской Арктике

The research objective of this article is to develop an optimal model for a human security system in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF). This topic has gained particular relevance as the focus of Arctic exploration has shifted to include human interests, needs, concerns, and threats to human security. Despite this shift, the concept of human security has not yet been incorporated into the strategic documents of the Russian Federation that outline development priorities for the AZRF, nor into practical policies at the federal, regional, or municipal levels. This study employs qualitative methods of systems modeling and elements of quantitative analysis to create a human security index for the AZRF. The novelty of this study lies in its analysis of the existing human security system in the AZRF, identifying the key elements of the management mechanism, their interrelationships, and the challenges in the mechanism's functioning. Based on this analysis, specific recommendations are proposed to optimize the structure of public administration in this area and to improve the effectiveness of interactions between government structures, businesses, and civil society organizations (including indigenous peoples' organizations) operating in the AZRF. Additionally, the study develops a set of specific indicators describing various aspects of the human security system in the region. In accordance with UN recommendations, these indicators are classified into seven groups, covering economic, food, health, environmental, personal, cultural, linguistic, and political aspects of human security. Using these indicators, the study proposes to create a human security index for the Russian Arctic. This index will enable the monitoring of human security trends in the AZRF and inform adjustments to government policy in this area.

C&EN talks with Loreto Paulino, chemist and Arctic explorer

C&EN talks with Loreto Paulino, chemist and Arctic explorer

Who is attracted to work at Arctic station in Hornsund? Analysis of personality profiles of applicants

The first Arctic explorers underwent no formal selection procedure, and their personality traits were not diagnosed. Today, select in and select out procedures in systematic screening activities are common, although each country manages a polar station recruits according to its standards. The main goal of this article is to present the results of personality tests of work candidates at the Polish Polar Station Hornsund in Spitsbergen in 2019–2023. The applicants' personality was diagnosed with the NEO Five-Factor Inventory examining the Big Five personality traits. Results indicated that candidates for work in the polar station were significantly lower in neuroticism, slightly lower in openness to experience and higher in conscientiousness than the general Polish population. Moreover, there was a significant discrepancy in neuroticism between winterers and those not selected for wintering. This result was not observed in the female group. Potential reasons for study outcomes will be discussed in the article.

Crises in the Arctic: Upheavals in the Memoir of Josephine Diebitsch-Peary

In My Arctic Journey: A Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos (1894), Josephine Diebitsch-Peary documents her experiences during the North Greenland Expedition of 1891–92, which began ominously when her husband, the famed Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary, broke his leg aboard the Kite and was carried to the expedition headquarters near the mouth of MacCormick Fjord. As the first white woman in the Arctic, Diebitsch-Peary faced numerous crises, torn as she was between True Womanhood ideals and desires for hunting and exploration. She navigated internal and external upheavals, depicting the Arctic landscape and native disputes, and vacillating between biased descriptions and identification with Inughuit women. Additional crises included the disappearance of mineralogist and meteorologist John M. Verhoeff and the pressures of her husband’s ambitions. Despite these challenges, she actively participated in the expedition, grappling with traditional role expectations and the demands of polar exploration. Her memoir reflects the personal, national, and international costs of a contested icescape, revealing the struggles she overcame and those she did not.

Перспективы развития научно-популярного туризма в Арктике

The development of the Arctic territories of the Russian Federation is especially relevant in an unstable geopolitical situation, due to the importance of the region for national security. One of the prospective directions of Arctic exploration is the development of popular science tourism. The aim of the work is to determine the vector of development of popular science tourism in the subjects of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in order to increase the scientific and technological potential of Russia, strengthen the presence of the Russian Federation in the Arctic, and attract young people to research projects related to the sustainable development of the Russian Arctic. As a result of the analysis of the theoretical aspects of popular science tourism, its essence and principles were clarified, and the relevance of the study was revealed based on the popularity of Internet queries. With the help of the "sales funnel", a model of involving potential stakeholders in science is built. A study of the current situation in the field of popular science tourism has revealed its insufficient distribution in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. To determine the most attractive Arctic regions in order to develop popular science tourism, an analysis of the dynamics and structure of indicators characterizing the tourist potential of the territory, which formed the basis for the point rating assessment of the regions included in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, was carried out. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Republic of Karelia and the Murmansk Region.

Comprehensive study of the cold-temperature directed energy deposition: Multi-physics modelling and experimental validation

Currently almost all the directed energy deposition (DED) processes are performed under ideal lab conditions with the room temperature close to 20 °C. By contrast, the cold-temperature DED has potentially onsite use in cold environments, such as the winter in the Northern Hemisphere, where the ambient temperatures are often near or below freezing point temperature (0 °C). However, there is a lack of study on the cold-temperature DED process due to its unique temperature conditions. To fill this gap, the authors employed both multi-physics modelling and experimental approaches to study the DED process at cold temperature (CT) −3 °C, and compare to the room temperature (RT) 20 °C DED process. Stainless Steel 316L (SS316L) was selected as powder material. The multiple physics in the DED process involving laser heat source, local melting, rapid cooling, solidification, phase change, evaporation, and fluid-gas interactions were modeled using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) – volume of fluid (VOF) approach. To validate the model, the DED experiments were conducted using a cryogenic DED platform in which the DED process was chilled to customized low temperatures. This high-fidelity model predicted accurate thermal results and deposit geometries for both the CT and RT DED cases. The results show that under sub-freezing conditions, the deposit size of the CT-DED is ∼62.1 % bigger than the RT-DED in the mean area throughout the length of the single-track thin wall. Furthermore, the CT-DED results show a steeper thermal gradient and at the same time a lower heat flux near the substrate. This high-fidelity modelling framework can be effectively expanded to study more cold-temperature additive manufacturing cases, like the Arctic exploration and in-Space manufacturing.

Ghazal for the Nightmare of History, For Admiral Peary: Arctic Explorer, Meteor Shower, November 18, 2001, not in Afghanistan

Ghazal for the Nightmare of History, For Admiral Peary: Arctic Explorer, Meteor Shower, November 18, 2001, not in Afghanistan

Reading<em> Frankenstein </em>in 1818: From Climate Change to Popular Sovereignty

1818, the year of Frankenstein’s first publication, is a frequently overlooked context for Mary Shelley’s novel, overshadowed as it is both by Frankenstein’s afterlives and by the moment of its first conception in Switzerland, 1816, the ‘Year Without a Summer’. What might it mean for a novel that has transcended literary history and achieved mythic status to be re-situated as one of the novels of 1818? The article considers recent topics of critical interest, including ecocritical readings of the novel in the shadow of Mount Tambora and the topicality of the frame narrative in relation to histories of arctic exploration, before focusing on the politics of Frankenstein. Many critics have read the novel as a belated allegory of the French Revolution, which leads inexorably towards an interpretation of Frankenstein as an anti-revolutionary fiction. For the readers of 1818, however, it is the unfolding events of post-Waterloo Britain, not the French Revolution, that constitutes the primary political context, producing a more open-ended and radical text. The final section of the article reads the novel in dialogue with William Hazlitt’s essay, ‘What Is the People?’, showing how both texts engage with questions agitated by the popular reform movement, including responses to tyranny and the sovereignty of the people.

The Queen of the Arctic: Louise Arner Boyd

Louise Boyd (1887–1972) was a female pioneer in Arctic research whose legacy includes the exploration of north-east Greenland. In this Perspective piece, we use a broad interdisciplinary approach to investigate her career as a photographer and expedition leader. When documenting glacial retreat during the 1930s, she was at the forefront of the development of glaciology as a research discipline. Without family obligations and with seemingly inexhaustible financial resources, she used Arctic exploration to create an independent and self-defined life for herself.

The Mosaics of an Arctic Seamstress: Narrative Versions of Ada Blackjack on Wrangel Island, 1921–1923

This essay focuses on the narrative mosaics of Iñupiat Alaskan Ada Delutuk Blackjack, hired seamstress on an occupation colony on Wrangel Island in 1921–23, organized by renowned Canadian Arctic explorer and writer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. While the venture resulted in the tragic deaths of Blackjack’s four companions on the island, she became the expedition’s sole survivor and kept a diary during the last months of her stay. I read Blackjack’s narrative self-representation against some of the characteristics given to her in Stefansson’s official account of the expedition, The Adventure of Wrangel Island, highlighting differences in the two texts. Blackjack’s achievement is a disturbing element in Stefansson’s theory of the superior Arctic adaptability of the educated western male and his evolutionary understanding of the history of polar exploration. Her diary is a taciturn story of events on the island, of both drama and triumph in an environment of extreme isolation. By focusing on some of the narrative elements that form Blackjack’s characteristic perception of her surroundings, it is possible to read her autoethnograpic and pluralistic narrative self-representation as a key feature of her narrative Indigeneity.

Fragments of Frankliniana: The Conservation of Arctic Exploration-Related Paper

Most of the paper retrieved from the Arctic has been from sites where cairns were erected or where caches of stores were deposited by nineteenth and early twentieth century explorers. This article describes the investigation and conservation treatment of the contents of one artifact, a metal canister, left in the Canadian Arctic as early as 1850 by parties in search of the missing Franklin Expedition. Retrieved from an Arctic island beach one hundred years later, it was deposited with not one, but two Canadian national collecting institutions. Having rested mostly unexamined for over fifty years, preparations for the exhibition Death in the Ice, The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition in 2015 renewed interest in the artifact and its contents, now known to have been the subject of multiple relocations and rediscoveries in the realms of not only Arctic exploration but also museum and archives practice.

Arctic science and politics in Fascist Italy. Italian polar expeditions and the International Polar Exhibition in the interwar years

ABSTRACT In 1928, the airship Italia, commanded by Umberto Nobile, crashed on the way back from the North Pole. The tragic outcome of his expedition interrupted the organization of significant Arctic explorations and generated a fracture between Mussolini’s regime and polar studies. The Fascist regime implicitly expressed its shame for its role in the whole unfortunate expedition and the subject became taboo in the entire country. Almost ten years later, in 1937, Norway invited all countries that had previously undertaken polar expeditions to participate in the first International Polar Exhibition (Internasjonal utstilling for polarforskning), planned to be held from May 1940. Considering the polemics after the 1928 Arctic expedition, the Norwegians’ eager efforts to solicit Italy’s participation in the exhibition may appear surprizing. Therefore, this work aims to better understand these dynamics, seeing the uncertainties surrounding Italy’s participation in the polar exhibition in light of Nobile’s pivotal role in the organization of Fascist Italy’s polar explorations.

РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ ИСТОРИИ О МЕЗЕНСКИХ «РОБИНЗОНАХ» НА СТРАНИЦАХ ДЕТСКИХ ИЗДАНИЙ XIX ВЕКА

The article is devoted to the story of Mezen hunters, which was published in children’s magazines of the second half of the 19th century. The historiography of this topic is not too extensive. The research interest was focused on the event of the Mezen “microhistory” for children. The source of the article was published in the journals “Journal for reading students of military schools” (1846), “Snowdrop” (1859, 1862) and “Children’s reading” (1871). The article recreates the mechanism of representation of the plot from the history of the development of Svalbard in the XVIII century in the periodicals of the pre-revolutionary period. Comparative analysis of the texts led to conclusions about the techniques used by writers, adapting 18th century narrative to children. The authors conclude that, firstly, during this period, the story of the Mezens in Svalbard is represented in the form of a recounting of events from the German language; secondly, the central episode of the Robinsonade is restored using an arsenal of visual aids; Third, the plot is presented in the form of an artistic and journalistic essay with a foreword about the history of Arctic exploration and the previous unsuccessful wintering. The results of the work suggest the approbation of the hypothesis and the construction of a variant of the plot about Mezen “robinsons” as it exists in children’s magazines of the XIX century.

The Arctic from a Hungarian Perspective

The history of Arctic exploration and the natural and social geographical characteristics of the region have been in the focus of Hungarian geographical research for 250 years. These studies are not exclusively geographical, but related to scientific fields (science, ethnography, and geopolitics), and include travel history. At the same time, no uniform work or knowledge base was created that would summarize domestic research in the Arctic region. The present study tries to fill this gap and summarize the role of Hungarian scientists in the research history of Arctic geography and related sciences and covers a geopolitical perspective. During the study, I applied a multidisciplinary approach, using domestic scientific works published in the fields of history, travel history, geography, ethnography, linguistics, as well as international relations, geopolitics, and international law. I concluded that the Arctic region has belonged to the field of interest of Hungarian scientists for centuries. I identified five major periods, during which different aspects and scientific fields played a central role (e.g., natural science, ethnography, geopolitics).

Advancing Observational Infrastructure in the Arctic

Sampling under ice-covered seas, such as the Chukchi and Bering, is difficult. Vessels capable of working in ice are limited, ice destroys surface floats, and ice keels on the shallow Chukchi shelf can extend downward 30 m, confining subsurface moorings to the near bottom. Hence, there is limited data from beneath the ice and in the marginal ice-edge zones. The Innovative Technology for Arctic Exploration (ITAE) program focuses on development of specialized tools tailored to these challenging environmental conditions. In addition, a new data acquisition system will improve transmission of full resolution data in real time. These new technologies are important for the Ecosystems and Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (EcoFOCI) program, which maintains NOAA’s largest observing network in the US Arctic (Tabisola et al., 2022).

Accelerating Research and Development in the US Arctic Reflections on a NOAA Program

Since 2015, the Innovative Technology for Arctic Exploration (ITAE) program has supported maritime technology development that contributes to economic growth, ocean health, and ocean management in Alaska. The program does this in multiple ways: through public-private partnerships, platform and small-scale sensor design, and research to operations, commercialization, and application of science-driven technologies. ITAE is a high-risk, high-reward research collaborative that provides support and expertise for creative scientists pursuing highly innovative research solutions with the potential for broad impact in US Arctic marine sciences. This program is funded through NOAA to support projects that may be overlooked in the traditional peer-review process because of their inherent risk. However, not all risks lead to success, not every risk leads to failure, and not all failures eliminate success. Development and growth are nurtured by risk and temporary setbacks. The science advanced by these researchers and collaborators forges new paths of discovery. While the Arctic is an excellent testbed, in part, due to its extreme conditions, the technologies and lessons detailed here are transferable to oceanographic research outside of the Arctic. This paper reviews the program as well as the successes and failures of this dedicated Arctic innovation collaborative at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.

Semi-mechanistic analysis of emergency planning zones for 20 MWe lead-cooled fast reactor by hypothetical accidents during Korea's arctic exploration

Small modular reactors or micro modular reactors have been considered as an alternative power source for merchant ships because of minimal carbon emission and a long lifecycle without refueling. Ahead of the operation, however, their emergency planning zones (EPZs) should be optimally set and approved to ensure both radiological safety and cost efficiency in case of nuclear accidents. Thus, the required size of EPZs was analyzed based on semi-mechanistic assumptions for hypothetical accidents with MicroURANUS, a micro modular fast reactor type of 20-MW lead-bismuth-cooled, used to power an icebreaker during Korea's Arctic missions. For meteorological data, actual icebreaker data acquired in 2020s Artic exploration were utilized. The results showed that EPZ sizes, rationalized in terms of stability class, wind directions, and inherent radioprotection design, ranged within the assumed icebreaker boundary. When comparing various regulations among countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency, dose criteria of Korea (10 mSv/2 d) were found to be strictest. Since major contribution to the whole-body dose was from noble gases (over 96%), a high-quality air filtration system in addition to external shielding would significantly reduce hazards. The emergency situation could be successfully controlled without evacuation and sheltering, avoiding overestimated socioeconomic costs.

А.Н. МОТНЕНКО – ВРАЧ, ХИРУРГ, ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬ АРКТИКИ, РЕКТОР, ТАЛАНТЛИВЫЙ АДМИНИСТРАТОР (К 120-ЛЕТИЮ СО ДНЯ РОЖДЕНИЯ)

Anton Naumovich Motnenko (1902-1953) was a prominent Fig.in the Kuban and domestic healthcare. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the contribution of A.N. Motnenko to the development of the Arctic, practical healthcare, the formation and development of higher medical education in Kuban and the country, and his administrative and organizational abilities. The article presents new and little-known facts of A.N. Motnenko's biography and the stages of his personality formation. A native of a peasant family, graduated from a medical institute in Rostov-on-Don, graduated as a surgeon. At the age of 31, he was appointed head of the polar winter quarters and at the same time a doctor on Franz Josef Land (1933-1934), where he successfully solved administrative issues, coped with the epidemic with the flu epidemic. He was personally acquainted with the legendary Arctic explorer I.D. Papanin. At the age of 33, he became the director of the Kuban Medical Institute. The Red Army (1943-1944), ensured the work of the university during the Great Patriotic War and the evacuation. Further administrative career: Director of the Medical Institute in Rostov-on-Don (1944), Deputy People's Commissar of Health of the RSFSR (1944-1949), Rector of the Odessa Medical Institute (1949-1951). All periods of A.N. Motnenko's biography reflected his outstanding personal and professional qualities. Along with personal charm, kindness to employees, he possessed Exceptional abilities as an organizer and manager, which were in demand during a difficult period in the history of our country. In the available Russian and regional sources, the issues of A.N. Motnenko's activities are presented incompletely, contain a number of inaccuracies, there is no single publication reflecting all aspects and stages of his activity, which is the novelty of this work.

The 46th Reconnaissance Squadron: Arctic Exploration and Questions of Sovereignty in the Early Cold War

In the early Cold War, the Arctic emerged as a key region in American military planning. In 1946, the newly formed US Strategic Air Command deployed the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron to Alaska to improve navigational and cold weather flying capabilities. Major projects assigned to the squadron included the search for undiscovered land masses in the polar region, should any exist, and the establishment of an air route between Ladd Airfield, Alaska and the US base at Meeks Field, Iceland, which involved overflights of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This paper will explore the core projects within this initiative and how the US sought to manage Canadian sovereignty interests as it pursued its strategic objectives against the Soviet Union.
 Au début de la Guerre froide, l’Arctique est devenu une région clé de la planification militaire américaine. En 1946, le nouveau Strategic Air Command des États-Unis a déployé le 46e escadron de reconnaissance en Alaska pour améliorer les capacités de navigation et de vol par temps froid. Les principaux projets assignés à l’escadron comprenaient la recherche de masses terrestres non découvertes dans la région polaire, s’il en existait, et l’établissement d’une route aérienne entre l’aérodrome de Ladd, en Alaska, et la base américaine de Meeks Field, en Islande, qui supposait des survols de l’Archipel arctique canadien. Cet article étudie les principaux projets de cette initiative et les efforts déployés par les États-Unis pour gérer les intérêts de souveraineté du Canada alors qu’ils poursuivaient leurs objectifs stratégiques contre l’Union soviétique.

‘The Admiralty has been keeping its pictures’: photography and the British Arctic Expedition, 1875–1876

ABSTRACT When the British Arctic Expedition of 1875 under command of George Nares left in search of the North Pole, they brought with them the most up-to-date photographic equipment available to the British Admiralty. Two crew members received instruction in photography from the astronomer, engineer and photographer, William Abney at Chatham, and Abney also sourced the wet and dry-plate equipment provided for the expedition. The expedition was unsuccessful in its ambitious geographical goal of reaching the North Pole, but it returned in 1876 with over 100 photographs. However, the Admiralty did not immediately release the photographs, which was a decision that was broadly criticized in the British periodical press. This was the first time an expedition had successfully returned with photographs taken in the high Arctic, so why did the Admiralty withhold the photographs? In this article, I use examples from the Illustrated London News and Nares’ official travel account Narrative of A Voyage to the Polar Sea (1878) to examine the use of photography in constructing specific ideals of exploration in the context of the British Arctic Exploration of 1875. I show that the use of photography in the Arctic had been an experiment, both in terms of using new technologies while travelling in the high north, and in incorporating this new medium into the visual archives and narrative storytelling of expeditions. The use of different forms of illustrations also speaks the construction of visual authority and narratorial control in the context of imperial expansionism in the North.