ИСТИНА

RUSSIAN ARCTIC: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES OF THE M.V.LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF GEOGRAPHY Dobrolubov S.A., Surkova G.V. M.V.Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow Russia Keywords: Arctic, science, education, geography The structure of the Faculty of Geography comprises 3 main profiles: the Ecological-Geographical profile, the Economical-Geographical profile; the Hydrometeorological profile. There are 15 departments inside. Each Department houses education offered by the faculty. Also research at the faculty is organised into the research groups of the Departments. Our main topics • high-profile multidisciplinary research of the mechanisms controlling natural hazards, including climate change, global and regional atmospheric dynamics, ocean-related processes, surface hydrology, soil and ground water geochemistry and cryosphere-related phenomena; • to comprehensively study, analyse and evaluate the impacts of different extreme events on the regional environment, soil vegetation potential, biogeochemistry balances, water management and economic infrastructure; • to develop assessments of risk of different natural hazards under present and future climate conditions and associated strategies for managing and mitigating projected risk to avert disasters to the benefit of all stakeholders. According to the view of the International Panel on Climate Change, weather and climate risks are those associated with extreme weather events, i.e. events that rarely occur in a particular place and at a particular time of the year. By definition, the characteristics of what is called extreme weather, in an absolute sense, can vary from location to location. If the frequency of extreme weather pattern increase, for example, during a season, then it can be classified as an extreme climatic event, especially if it leads to an event that is extreme (for example, strong winds, storm waves, heat or cold waves etc). The rapid rise in temperature in the Arctic in recent decades is confirmed by ground-based and satellite observations. And this is not only a change in the temperature regime, but also a restructuring of the atmospheric circulation, a change in the area of sea ice, an increase in the frequency of dangerous, extreme weather events and storm conditions in the Arctic seas. Such changes and the recurrence of dangerous weather phenomena are being recorded at the present time. According to the projections of possible climate change in the Arctic in the 21st century towards warming, they will be significant enough to be taken into account in different branches of not only science, but also economics, industrial planning, and infrastructure. These changes are being discussed by politicians in connection with the opening up opportunities for shipping in the Arctic seas. Against the background of the positive aspects associated with the rise in temperature in the Arctic, it is necessary to consider not only the change in average climate indicators. It is important to evaluate the change in the frequency of occurrence of hazardous atmospheric phenomena. And this is already an aspect, both economic and political. And it is a great challenge to understand past and modern processes in the Arctic and to find instruments to make projection of Arctic change in the future.