A 2025 High-Resolution Glacier Inventory of the Greater Caucasus Reveals Accelerated Area Loss

Abstract The Greater Caucasus is one of the most extensively glacierized mountain systems in mid-latitude Eurasia and has experienced substantial glacier retreat in recent decades. Continuous monitoring using high-resolution satellite observations is therefore essential for accurately quantifying ongoing and future changes. In this study, we present a new glacier inventory for 2025 derived from high-resolution…

The Potential of INM-CM5 Multi-year Climate Forecasts for Hydrological Application in Russian River Basins

Abstract: This study assesses the potential of the INM-CM5 climate model to provide multi-year (1–5 years) forecasts of monthly and average annual precipitation and surface air temperature for hydrological application across Russia. Retrospective forecasts (hindcasts) for the period from 1991 to 2023 were used. The forecasts were verified for 12 river basins located almost throughout…

Using GIS, modelling and other tech to track reindeer patterns

Abstract: At the start of the twenty-first century, the historically rooted sector of pastoral reindeer husbandry in European Russia entered a period of rapid transformation driven by both environmental and social dynamics. Environmental shifts associated with the climatic reconfiguration of Arctic ecosystems, evaluations of the likely consequences of the explosive acceleration of regional industrial development,…

A review of digital soil mapping in Russia

Abstract Russia stands at the origins of world soil cartography. Given Russia’s vast and diverse territories, the production of current soil maps is an important task in the context of global climate change and food demand. This article provides a review of the digital soil mapping (DSM) field in Russia by identifying trends and research gaps. We examined studies published…

Impact on permafrost layers from wildfires

Multi-authored article including some Russian contributions. They were interested in the thickness of the active permafrost layer and have combined 52,566 data records which others can use for modelling further impacts. Abstract: As the northern high-latitude permafrost zone experiences accelerated warming, permafrost has become vulnerable to widespread thaw. Simultaneously, wildfire activity across northern boreal forest…

Pleistocene Park creators identify 3000 yr old Siberian weather using mummified wood

Nikita and Sergey Zimov of Pleistocene Park in Sakha Republic of Russia, co-authored a study reconstructing Holocene weather conditions. This will help predict the effects of climate change in today’s Russian Arctic. Even Siberian permafrost regions have seasonal variation, especially summer and winter cycles. Mean average annual temperatures and general mean average conditions were previously…

Ice jams and models along the Volga river

Ice is one of the leading causes of damage to infrastructure from water factors including flooding, ice blockages and hanging ice: In 2020, The Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) recorded 1,000 dangerous hydrometeorological phenomena in Russia (97 phenomena more than in 2019), of which 372 phenomena caused significant damage to critical…

Surfing the Russian coast – an atlas of wind and wave energy

Russia’s coastline includes seas and oceans stretching along 40,000 km. Wave energy varies between 29kW/M – 35 kW/M (Myslenkov et al., 2023) The researchers investigated on and offline mapping and methodologies forecasting wind and wave movements. They developed an open-access atlas so that anyone can get updated wind and wave information. This is now available…

Predicting carbon friendly and investment friendly climates in Russia

Between 1990 and 2019, Russia had halved its GHG emissions, with 2019 emissions at 2.1 GtCO2e with carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted during energy consumption representing the bulk, alongside methane CH4 from oil and gas infrastructure, waste and nitrous oxide (NO) from agriculture. As previously mentioned, Russia’s energy mix includes natural gas, nuclear, some coal, oil…