Russia launches satellite to monitor climate in Arctic

Context

Russia launched its space satellite Arktika-M on a mission to monitor the climate and environment in the Arctic amid a push by the Kremlin (Russian Parliament) to expand the country’s activities in the region.

What is Arktika-M?

• Artika-M is Russia’s first in a new series of weather satellites to aid forecasting over its high-latitude regions.
  • The launch of the second satellite of the Arktika-M series is planned for 2023, and it will be followed by three more devices in 2024 and 2025.
• It is aimed at monitoring the Arctic region’s climate and environment. 
• The Arktika network could perform a variety of remote-sensing tasks, such as monitoring of environmental conditions, and also provide reliable communications and navigation across this inhospitable region.
• The majority of Arktika satellites would be launched by Soyuz-2-1b rockets into highly elliptical orbits with most of their orbital path in view of the northern hemisphere.
• As a result, at least one of the satellites would always be present above the horizon to provide communications, meteorological data and other services over the Arctic.
• The constellation would be divided into four sub-systems:
  • Arktika-M
  • Arktika-MS1
  • Arktika-MS2
  • Arktika-R satellites

What will it do?

• The Arktika-M will monitor northern regions for lengthy periods before it loops back down under Earth.
• At the right orbit, the satellite will be able to monitor and take images every 15-30 minutes of the Arctic, which can’t be continuously observed by satellites that orbit above the Earth’s equator.
• The satellite will also be able to retransmit distress signals from ships, aircraft or people in remote areas as part of the international Cospas-Sarsat satellite-based search and rescue program.

The need

• The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average over the last three decades.
• The Arctic holds huge oil and gas reserves that are being eyed by Russia and other countries including the United States, Canada and Norway.
  
  
• Moscow is seeking to develop the energy-rich region, investing in the Northern Sea Route for shipping across its long northern flank as ice melts.
• Exploitation of natural resources of Arctic: Natural Gas, Methane Hydrates, Fisheries etc