Hydrometeorological and Ice Conditions in the Pechora Sea during the Conduct of the Experiment in 2001-2003 (Part 1)

Pechora Sea, situated in the South-Eastern Barents Sea is a shallow water area rich with hydrocarbons. The proximity to the land and major ports (like Naryan-Mar, Arkhangel’sk or Murmansk) and huge proven hydrocarbon reserves make this area one of the most promising from the point of view of future exploration. Though this water area is characterized by the rather harsh metocean and ice regimes. In September 2001, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI, Russia) with the help of ASL Environmental Sciences Inc. (Canada) had installed two submerged autonomous buoy stations equipped with the acoustic doppler current profilers (ADCP) and ice profilers (IPS) for two years for measuring current and ice drift parameters. The analysis of the obtained data let to specify the earlier estimations of ice and metocean regimes. This article is dealing with analysis of ice and synoptic conditions in 2001-2003 in the Pechora Sea that allowing more detailed estimation of the background of two years of ice and current measurements.