Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), Russia

State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute belongs to the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring. Organized in 1920, AARI is the oldest and the largest Russian research institution in the field of comprehensive studies of the Polar Regions. The history of the Institute begins since 1920, when the Northern Research and Trade Expedition was organized. In 1925 the Northern Research and Trade Expedition was reorganized into the Institute for Northern Studies. Since 1930 the Institute was named as the Arctic Research Institute. In 1958 according to the Resolution of the Government the organization and coordination of national Antarctic exploration were laid on the Institute and it has become the AARI. Further changes brought the AARI in 1963 under the Main Administration of the Hydrometeorological Service (now the Federal Service of Russia for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring of the Environment). In 1994 the AARI has obtained the status of State Research Center of Russia. The AARI performs the complex investigations in the Arctic and Antarctic in the field of oceanography, physics of ice, ocean, and in- land water, meteorology, ocean/air interaction, geophysics, sea ice studies, glaciology, polar geography, hydrochemistry, hydrology of river mounts and water resources, ecology, interaction of the ship's hull and other engineering constructions with ice, polar medicine.