Мурманская миля. 2016, № 3.

ONBOARD THE RESEARCH VESSEL 42 Sea sailing the Novaya Zemlya round from the north. I had not been here fo r almost 30 years. But let’s relate the facts as they actually happened. YELLOW SUBMARINE So, the passage from the Barents Sea to the work area in the northwestern part of the Kara Sea commenced. This time of year the Barents Sea is relatively calm. Five days later the main thing started, specifically, the overboard equipment was run. In the months followed it was sending terabytes of data to the numerous computers of the shipboard processing center continuously on a 24-hour basis. Those data were the aim the expedition was initiated for. The scientific staff of the expedition was divided into several teams with their own specific tasks. And the hydrographic laboratory (which was also the navigation command post of the research operations) was the first one to start the work. It was headed by Aleksandr Yefanov, the elder of the navigator team. His younger subordinates Dmitry Nesterenko, Anatoly Smaghitel and Viktor Panas respectfully called him ‘Sensei’ (like a coach in Japanese martial arts) behind his back. In the point where the work was to be commenced namely ‘Sensei’ with his ‘apprentices’ had sounded the depth as well as registered the sound velocity in the water of different density. All those m icroseconds would affect the final data accuracy afterwards as the geophysical method the NALIVKIN used in the Kara Sea was ‘seismic survey’ . Acoustic signal is set into depth with powerful seismic source points which are called ‘air guns’ in daily use. With the help of chains they are tied to the long floats called ‘bananas’ in the slang of Russian geophysicists, or ‘sausages’ in the slang of their English-speaking colleagues. The air guns were run overboard by the separate team of the air- gun operators headed by Vitaly Tatarinov. The deck they work at is called a ‘gun d e c k ’ . Indeed, shots of compressed air can be easily compared with gunshots. It rem inds of the dawn of seism ic surveys in the A rctic seas when geo logists used o rd inary tro ty l blocks instead of compressed air. It is said tha t even powder men from the friend ly Northern Fleet were involved in the research staff back then... And finally, here is the main element of the system. It is a long (up to 1 0 - 1 2 kilometers) streamer representing a thick cable with a great number of transducers which transmit to the processing center the reflected response data from the subsoil layers being situated at a depth of several kilometers under the seabed. To deploy the streamer is a demanding operation. Its end is attached to a huge buoy representing a float which is nostalgically called a ‘yellow submarine’ by analogy with the popular song of ‘The Beatles’. The streamer itself is also bright yellow and is wound to a giant reel at the stern. It is MURMANSK MILE • 3-2016