Increases in sea ice melt, permafrost melt and wildfires are observed whilst Siberian temperatures continue to escalate beyond previous records, for example 38°C last year inside the Arctic Circle. To understand the changes, researchers looked at proxy records. Historically in the Siberian Arctic they have mostly included low-resolution pollen records and laminated lake sediments. They…
Category: climate change
Mounds of mires
Researchers from Tuvan and Tomsk universities wanted to understand the impact of climate change on palsa mires which are frozen mounds of peat bogs found in the highlands of southern Siberia. They are caused by permafrost and can be several metres high and up to several hundred km2 in area. When reading existing research they…
1.5ºC annual average warming predicted in Russia over next 30 years
Vladimir Semyonov is Deputy Director of the Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Russian News Agency TASS reported from a recent press conference summarising the current climate atmospheric position based on the Institute’s science. The Institute is an IPCC contributor and collaborator: According to him, the warming will be…
Uncovering stratospheric oxygen and nitrogen in Russian skies
Variability in total contents based on long term stratospheric trends are measured by researchers at the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics. They are measuring levels of O3 and NO2 at the Kislovodsk High-Altitude Scientific Station (KHASS) and Zvenigorod Scientific Station (ZSS). This includes direct and zenith scattered UV solar radiation during mornings and evening…
Permafrost and cryogenic monitoring in the western Russian Arctic.
Permafrost is currently analysed by reviewing temperatures at different layers compared with air and ground surface temperatures, depth of freezing and thawing, as well as overall coverage including snow and vegetation. Mean annual air temperature (MAAT) and mean annual ground temperatures (MAGT) are a widely used source of analysis with the practical measurements being completed…
Feeling the burn in the Volga
Warmer climates have increased the frequency and volume of forest fires across Russia, even in areas which have snow cover. About 98% of forest fires in populated Russia were estimated to be caused by human activity and in more remote areas, approximately 50% caused by thunderstorms and lightening. The researchers reviewed the risks and effect…
Algae at the Baltic seaside
Scientists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kemerovo State University and Shirsov Institute of Oceanology at Russian Academy of Sciences analysed the algae biomass and what they might do with it. Increased concentration of algae is becoming more common on coastlines around the world. They release greenhouse gases , smell unpleasant and make beaches less…
Climate change impact on river basins in Ukraine 2020
The researchers used six models comparing precipitation and drought based on river levels using RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. Their predictions show a decrease in water in most of the eight main river basins, particularly between 2040 – 2070. The greatest reductions by the end of the century are predicted for Pripyat, Southern bug…
Biting back at humans with climate change
A human disease called dirofilariasis caused by parasitic mosquitoes has been affected by the warmer climate in Russia, expanding north and east, currently 58° N (Kondrashin et al., 2022) in both European and Asian Russia. Researchers developed a map using data from the Russian Meteorological office between 1937 and 2016. The data shows long term average…
An unusually windy, high salt diet of the Arctic Ocean
An international collaboration with Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences monitored the causes, impacts of circulation and sea ice decline in the Arctic Ocean between 2000 – 2019. Sea ice decline, and atmospheric warming affect the distribution of fresh and saline water with the changing currents. The researchers created simulations…
Russian Climate Research 