The first stage of marine research for the Arctic Connect project has been completed

The first stage of marine research in the framework of the project for laying an underwater communication line from Europe to Asia has been completed. The research vessel “Professor Logachev” arrived in Vladivostok after the end of the expedition, the press service of the government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) reports.
Rosgeologia and MegaFon have become key partners for conducting marine engineering surveys in the implementation of the Arctic Connect project.
In the course of the work, the most difficult sections of the route in terms of ice conditions in the waters of the Northern sea route with a total length of 6.5 thousand km were studied. the research Package included profile observations by remote geophysical methods that do not harm the environment, such as water depth measurement with a multi – beam echo sounder, areal sonar survey of the bottom and study of the structure of the upper layer of bottom sediments with an acoustic Profiler. The work was carried out on sections with a depth of 30 to 613 m.
“During 105 days of the unique expedition, which started in late July in St. Petersburg, Professor Logachev covered about 16 thousand km, successfully completing the bottom survey on the sections of the PVOLS route in the waters of six seas-the Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Bering seas,” said Sergey Gorkov, General Director and Chairman of the Board of Rosgeologia JSC. “In the difficult conditions of the Arctic, the well-coordinated work and professionalism of the project team made it possible to overcome all difficulties and complete the work significantly ahead of schedule.”
The successful completion of the work was facilitated by the favorable ice conditions in the Arctic ocean, which allowed the ship to conduct research in high latitudes without icebreaking support.
“The first stage of work is completed. The data collected during the expedition will be processed by Rosgeology specialists during the winter-spring of 2020-2021. Next year, we will conduct the second stage of the survey, including the study of the bottom rocks on the route. The results obtained will allow us to choose the optimal route for cable laying along the Arctic zone of Russia, as well as to determine the construction sites of branches to the shore,” said Gevorg Vermishyan, General Director of MegaFon.
“Arctic Connect” will connect the continents where 85% of the population lives with a fiber-optic communication line, and will provide the fastest signal with the lowest level of delay. The launch of Arctic Connect with a capacity of 200 Tbit / s will help to cope with the growing volumes of global traffic. Branches built from the main line will provide high-quality communication to consumers of the Arctic and the Far East, including enterprises of the fuel and energy complex.

Origin: https://seanews.ru/2020/11/06/ru-zavershen-pervyj-jetap-morskih-issledovanij-po-proektu-arctic-connect/