Environmental Conditions Affecting the Use of the Northern Sea Route as a Shipping Lane
This chapter deals with environmental conditions which affect the use of the Northern Sea Route as a shipping lane. It includes a description of geographical distribution of the seas and the coastline as well as the bathymetry of particular seas of the Ru
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Environmental Conditions Affecting the Use of the Northern Sea Route as a Shipping Lane
Abstract This chapter deals with environmental conditions which affect the use of the Northern Sea Route as a shipping lane. It includes a description of geographical distribution of the seas and the coastline as well as the bathymetry of particular seas of the Russian Arctic. The text points out that little is known about the seabed in many areas and discusses recommendations regarding shipping safety, narrow passages and the minimum under keel clearance. The chapter examines the impact of climatic conditions on navigation on the NSR. It includes an analysis of information on air temperature and demonstrates that the process of old ice cover reduction and new ice cover formation will be the most rapid in the eastern part of the Kara Sea and in the Laptev Sea. The chapter also includes an analysis of wind regime over the seas of the Russian Arctic and describes typical relationships. On average, the occurrence of strong wind is not a determining factor for navigation on the NSR. Depending on the presence or the lack of ice cover, strong and very strong wind may cause ice drift or vessel icing. There is little information regarding horizontal visibility and fog to be found in the literature on the subject. The chapter contains information as to when fog may occur over particular seas of the Russian Arctic and how it may impact navigation on the NSR. The chapter also describes conditions conducive to vessel icing, the intensity of vessel icing in particular regions and its impact on navigation on the NSR. It determines the factors affecting the hydrological regime of particular seas and discusses the impact of temperature and salinity of the seas of the Russian Arctic on the process of ice melting and water freezing, taking into account spatial distribution. The chapter contains an analysis of average monthly values of sea surface temperature for particular seas and selected time frames. The analysis suggests that ice cover reduction observed in recent years in the seas of the central part of the NSR does not necessarily have to continue. Also to be found in the chapter is an evaluation of the impact of waves and swell on navigation on the NSR, an analysis of water level fluctuations caused by wind surge and tides as well as the speed of tidal and permanent currents, and information on where these phenomena are at their most extreme.
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T. Pastusiak, The Northern Sea Route as a Shipping Lane, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41834-6_3
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Fig. 3.1 The seas of the Russian Arctic (red solid line limits of the seas according to IHO (1953), red dot line limits of the seas according to working document only (IHO 2002), Compiled by the author. Made with Natural Earth free vector and raster map data @ http://www.naturalearthdata.com.)
The Northern Sea Route and the western (Atlantic) approach to it cross five seas of the Russian Arctic: Barents, Kara,
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