Multiyear ice obstructing the Northwest Passage, causing significant reduction in navigability
Image credit: NASA/EO
A recent study showed a significant decline in the navigability of the Northwest Passage, Arctic Archipelago due to obstructions caused by multilayer ice in the region.
A new study published in Communications Earth & Environment revealed that the Northwest Passage, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans through Arctic waters, has experienced a significant reduction in navigability in recent years. This reduction is mainly attributed to the southward drift of multiyear ice, obstructing key shipping routes.
Since the first recorded transit of the Northwest Passage in 1906, fewer than 400 voyages have successfully navigated these waters. Despite the challenges posed by unpredictable ice and weather conditions, the passage has remained an attractive option because of the significant distance it can save on shipping journeys between the two oceans.
However, according to an analysis of satellite data from 2007 to 2021, the shipping season in the Northwest Passage has been shrinking. This occurs despite a general decline in sea ice thickness and extent across the Arctic, which is often believed to make the passage more viable during the summer months.
On July 13, 2024, NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem) satellite captured a mostly cloud-free image of the Northwest Passage. The image showed that ice was obstructing all shipping routes around Victoria Island.
According to Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), despite the Arctic sea ice extent ranking seventh-lowest in the satellite record for mid-July, the ice coverage around the Canadian archipelago remains near record-low levels for this time of year. While the southern route around Victoria Island is expected to clear by late September, conditions in the channels could change depending on wind patterns and drifting ice, Meier added.
The study identified the movement of multiyear ice from higher-latitude regions as a key factor in maintaining “choke points” along certain sections of the passage. This older, thicker ice is more resilient to atmospheric and oceanic changes, making it a persistent barrier in the channels.
Despite the overall decline in Arctic sea ice thickness and extent, the presence of this multiyear ice in the northern Canadian islands and Greenland continues to obstruct shipping routes.
An analysis of 40 years of satellite data shows a long-term decline in Arctic sea ice, with older, more durable ice becoming increasingly rare.
According to NOAA’s 2023 Arctic Report, ice older than four years covered nearly 2.5 million km2 (965 255 mi2) in September 1985. By September 2023, that coverage had dwindled to less than 100 000 km2 (38 610 mi2).
The Northwest Passage remained largely ice-covered in the past, blocking the inflow of Arctic Ocean ice. However, as the channels have melted in recent years, thick, hazardous ice has increasingly infiltrated the passage, posing new challenges for navigation, according to Meier.
References:
1 Sea ice choke points reduce the length of the shipping season in the Northwest Passage – Cook, A.J., Dawson, J., Howell, S.E.L., et al. – Commun Earth Environ 5, 362 (2024) – https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01477-6 – OPEN ACCESS
2 Sea Ice Chokes the Northwest Passage – NASA/EO – Accessed on August 8, 2024
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So which is it,a lot more ice freezing up and blocking the passage? Or are you going to try to adhere to the failed narrative of “Global Warming”??
Obviously they’re sticking to the bogus anthropogenic global warming climate change nonsense, it’s their dogmatic religion. I have to admit that this is better than the typical stories published about the Artic area this time of year when it’s summer time in the Northern hemisphere and they still are trying to scare people because ice is melting as it does during that season in the northern latitudes… not as bad either when they have news articles every winter here in the northern hemisphere of ice melting in Antarctica when it is summer there and the sun doesn’t set…. it’s deceptive because public education has become so poor most kids even in high school don’t know that the seasons are switched at the different polar regions.
Also did I read that correctly where the article itself states:
“Since the first recorded transit of the Northwest Passage in 1906, fewer than 400 voyages have successfully navigated these waters. ”
Seems to me that if only 400 ships have successfully navigated the waters that they have always been difficult to navigate and nothing at all has actually changed and the whole headline is misleading at best. I mean I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I see tons of cargo ships coming into port in our bay from China and elsewhere, and they’re traversing the entire Pacific Ocean which is a long journey, but I can guarantee that more than 400 cargo sized ships are making that journey each year, I could not even begin to imagine the amount of ships of all types including research and naval vessels which have crossed the Pacific Ocean since 1906, but if this area in concern has only ever had 400 ships, that alone tells me that it has always been very difficult, and obviously limited to summer months mostly due to the sun hardly rising in the cold winter months up there… perhaps I misread or misunderstood the 400 ships since 1906, I admittedly don’t pay too much attention to this articles other than to quickly read them to see what nonsense is being blamed on any prosperity that western nations enjoy from their ingenuity and hard work ethic, something that has been vilified in the last few decades in all western first world nations because anthropogenic global warming climate change ideology nonsense… pretty sure people like ourselves who do actual research are the only people who read these articles, as the bulk of them just get added to a bullet list to show all the headlines dealing with this nonsense, and using that as evidence as proof that it’s some catastrophic problem.
I can only pray that the American people are smart and wise enough not to vote for Kamala Harris and the Democrat insanity this November, that would truly be catastrophic, people definitely won’t be navigating these waters here or any others as fuel prices and the price of goods would be too high to do any maritime trade activities… which is likely affecting ships right now in the region more than ice, because fuel is expensive.