Ice navigation performance analysis using satellite data

Ship navigation performance in the Arctic ice-covered sea was investigated from various kinds of satellite data and a numerical model of sea ice. The effect of dynamical processes of ice on the performance was especially examined, for it was not focused enough in previous studies. As a result, it was found that ice stress can explain some parts of the navigation when high amount of speed reduction occurred in thin ice area, and vice versa. The result indicates an importance of considering dynamical processes of ice in addition to static condition of ice, to improve an accuracy of an ice navigation performance estimation.