Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness
Arctic navigation has become operational in recent decades with the decline in summer sea ice. To assess the navigability of trans-Arctic passages, combined model and satellite sea ice thickness (CMST) data covering both freezing seasons and melting seasons are integrated with the Arctic Transportat...
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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2072-4292/13/14/2766/ 2023-08-20T04:03:14+02:00 Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness Xiangying Zhou Chao Min Yijun Yang Jack C. Landy Longjiang Mu Qinghua Yang agris 2021-07-14 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142766 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13142766 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 14; Pages: 2766 Arctic shipping route transit time navigation window sea ice Text 2021 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142766 2023-08-01T02:11:10Z Arctic navigation has become operational in recent decades with the decline in summer sea ice. To assess the navigability of trans-Arctic passages, combined model and satellite sea ice thickness (CMST) data covering both freezing seasons and melting seasons are integrated with the Arctic Transportation Accessibility Model (ATAM). The trans-Arctic navigation window and transit time are thereby obtained daily from modeled sea ice fields constrained by satellite observations. Our results indicate that the poorest navigability conditions for the maritime Arctic occurred in 2013 and 2014, particularly in the Northwest Passage (NWP) with sea ice blockage. The NWP has generally exhibited less favorable navigation conditions and shorter navigable windows than the Northern Sea Route (NSR). For instance, in 2013, Open Water (OW) vessels that can only safely resist ice with a thickness under 15 cm had navigation windows of 47 days along the NSR (45% shorter than the 2011–2016 mean) and only 13 days along the NWP (80% shorter than the 2011–2016 mean). The longest navigation windows were in 2011 and 2015, with lengths of 103 and 107 days, respectively. The minimum transit time occurred in 2012, when more northward routes were accessible, especially in the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea with the sea ice edge retreated. The longest navigation windows for Polar Class 6 (PC6) vessels with a resistance to ice thickness up to 120 cm reached more than 200 days. PC6 vessels cost less transit time and exhibit less fluctuation in their navigation windows compared with OW vessels because of their ice-breaking capability. Finally, we found that restricted navigation along the NSR in 2013 and 2014 was related to the shorter periods of navigable days in the East Siberian Sea and Vilkitskogo Strait, with local blockages of thick ice having a disproportionate impact on the total transit. Shorter than usual navigable windows in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Beaufort Sea shortened the windows for entire routes of the NWP in 2013 and ... Text Arctic Archipelago Arctic Beaufort Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago East Siberian Sea laptev Laptev Sea Northern Sea Route Northwest passage Sea ice MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Laptev Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago Northwest Passage East Siberian Sea ENVELOPE(166.000,166.000,74.000,74.000) Remote Sensing 13 14 2766 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
op_collection_id |
ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic shipping route transit time navigation window sea ice |
spellingShingle |
Arctic shipping route transit time navigation window sea ice Xiangying Zhou Chao Min Yijun Yang Jack C. Landy Longjiang Mu Qinghua Yang Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness |
topic_facet |
Arctic shipping route transit time navigation window sea ice |
description |
Arctic navigation has become operational in recent decades with the decline in summer sea ice. To assess the navigability of trans-Arctic passages, combined model and satellite sea ice thickness (CMST) data covering both freezing seasons and melting seasons are integrated with the Arctic Transportation Accessibility Model (ATAM). The trans-Arctic navigation window and transit time are thereby obtained daily from modeled sea ice fields constrained by satellite observations. Our results indicate that the poorest navigability conditions for the maritime Arctic occurred in 2013 and 2014, particularly in the Northwest Passage (NWP) with sea ice blockage. The NWP has generally exhibited less favorable navigation conditions and shorter navigable windows than the Northern Sea Route (NSR). For instance, in 2013, Open Water (OW) vessels that can only safely resist ice with a thickness under 15 cm had navigation windows of 47 days along the NSR (45% shorter than the 2011–2016 mean) and only 13 days along the NWP (80% shorter than the 2011–2016 mean). The longest navigation windows were in 2011 and 2015, with lengths of 103 and 107 days, respectively. The minimum transit time occurred in 2012, when more northward routes were accessible, especially in the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea with the sea ice edge retreated. The longest navigation windows for Polar Class 6 (PC6) vessels with a resistance to ice thickness up to 120 cm reached more than 200 days. PC6 vessels cost less transit time and exhibit less fluctuation in their navigation windows compared with OW vessels because of their ice-breaking capability. Finally, we found that restricted navigation along the NSR in 2013 and 2014 was related to the shorter periods of navigable days in the East Siberian Sea and Vilkitskogo Strait, with local blockages of thick ice having a disproportionate impact on the total transit. Shorter than usual navigable windows in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Beaufort Sea shortened the windows for entire routes of the NWP in 2013 and ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Xiangying Zhou Chao Min Yijun Yang Jack C. Landy Longjiang Mu Qinghua Yang |
author_facet |
Xiangying Zhou Chao Min Yijun Yang Jack C. Landy Longjiang Mu Qinghua Yang |
author_sort |
Xiangying Zhou |
title |
Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness |
title_short |
Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness |
title_full |
Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness |
title_fullStr |
Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness |
title_full_unstemmed |
Revisiting Trans-Arctic Maritime Navigability in 2011–2016 from the Perspective of Sea Ice Thickness |
title_sort |
revisiting trans-arctic maritime navigability in 2011–2016 from the perspective of sea ice thickness |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142766 |
op_coverage |
agris |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(166.000,166.000,74.000,74.000) |
geographic |
Arctic Laptev Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago Northwest Passage East Siberian Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Laptev Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago Northwest Passage East Siberian Sea |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Beaufort Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago East Siberian Sea laptev Laptev Sea Northern Sea Route Northwest passage Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Beaufort Sea Canadian Arctic Archipelago East Siberian Sea laptev Laptev Sea Northern Sea Route Northwest passage Sea ice |
op_source |
Remote Sensing; Volume 13; Issue 14; Pages: 2766 |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13142766 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13142766 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
14 |
container_start_page |
2766 |
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1774713635847798784 |