Melting sea ice is opening new pathways through the Arctic such as the famed Northwest Passage. But it is also reducing visibility and potentially causing delays
CLIMATEWIRE | Arctic sea ice is rapidly vanishing as the world warms, opening up potential new shipping routes across the top of the world. But there’s a catch: Less ice means more fog, making it harder and more dangerous for ships to navigate the thawing sea.
It’s a hazard that decisionmakers should take into account when designing new shipping routes, the researchers suggest. Shifting away from the foggiest areas could save a little time and reduce the risk of accidents. The fog is often heaviest in areas where patches of open water have newly formed, close to the edge of the ice. And as Arctic sea ice continues to melt away, fog is likely to increase over the new stretches of open ocean.
Under a moderate future climate scenario, in which the world warms by as much as 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the study finds that fog could lengthen shipping times through the Northwest Passage by more than 25 percent, or around an extra three days. That’s close to the amount of warming scientists expect by the end of the century unless humanity swiftly increase its efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
Currently, most designs for Arctic shipping routes have vessels sticking close to the edge of the ice as they wend their way through the sea. The study suggests that these are likely to be some of the foggiest places, and that ships could lower their risks and save time — perhaps as much as a day — by detouring a bit farther out of the way.
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