Vessel movement velocity as the integral parameter of ice navigation conditions

The publication is considered methodology and preliminary results of computer processing of vector ice charts and simulation of ice navigation by empirical statistical model, which was designed in the AARI. The model is result of generalization of multi-year special ship ice observations, produced by the AARI scientists. The Institute has unique archive of ice charts, which were made by recognition of satellite images, their composition and vectorization. The archive covers the period since 1997. Average navigation velocity and total time expenditure for sailing along a route can be used as the objective indexes of the ice navigation conditions. In the article is presented detailed description of the technique for preparing data for numerical experiments with the empirical statistical model by applying the ice charts from the archive. The data preparing is processed in ArcGIS by means of specially designed computer programs. The numerical experiments simulate ice navigation of “Arctica” nuclear icebreaker. The comparison between the average navigation velocity and time expenditure for sailing along the route “Sabetta Port – Kara Gate Strait” at simulation of ice conditions in the first ten-day interval of May 1998 and the same temporal interval of 2019 indicates significant improve of the ice navigation conditions.