A small Arctic community housing an international research effort
Tiksi is a community of about 5,000 souls located on the Arctic Ocean coast of the Sakha Republic in Russia near the mouth of the Lena River.
It is one of the principal ports providing access between Siberia and the Laptev Sea.
Its primary footnote in history relates to the failed 1901-02 expedition of Baron Eduard Toll on the ship Zarya to reach the legendary Sannikov Land (Zemlya Sannikova), said to be located well offshore in the Laptev Sea.
The ship was beset in the ice for over a year.
The Baron and some companions attempted to walk back to the mainland, but were never seen again.
The remaining crew finally got the ship to Tiksi, where it promptly sank.
In 1932, the Soviet Government established a weather station at Tiksi, and weather data has been collected there continuously since that time.
In 2006, the Tiksi Hydrometeorological Observatory was established as an official project under a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Federal Service for hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The first US equipment was installed at the Observatory in 2007.
That same year, specifications were developed for a Clean Air Facility in accordance with Global Atmosphere Watch requirements for precision measurements.
In 2008, the Russian-US project was expanded with participation by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) also participate in this international effort.
The Tiksi facilities officially opened on August 25, 2010.
Its primary mission is to serve as an Arctic Observatory site that will contribute atmospheric measurements to the Global Atmosphere Watch, the Baseline Surface Radiation Network, and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement programs as part of a long-term International Polar Year (IPY) initiative.
One of the issues being studied is the effect of black carbon on sea ice and Arctic warming.