Simulation of optimal arctic routes using a numerical sea ice model based on an ice-coupled ocean circulation method

Abstract

Ever since the Arctic region has opened its mysterious passage to mankind, continuous attempts to take advantage of its fastest route across the region has been made. The Arctic region is still covered by thick ice and thus finding a feasible navigating route is essential for an economical voyage. To find the optimal route, it is necessary to establish an efficient transit model that enables us to simulate every possible route in advance. In this work, an enhanced algorithm to determine the optimal route in the Arctic region is introduced. A transit model based on the simulated sea ice and environmental data numerically modeled in the Arctic is developed. By integrating the simulated data into a transit model, further applications such as route simulation, cost estimation or hindcast can be easily performed. An in-teractive simulation system that determines the optimal Arctic route using the transit model is developed. The simulation of optimal routes is carried out and the validity of the results is discussed.

Economic feasibility of an NSR/SCR-combined container service on the Asia-Europe lane: a new approach dynamically considering sea ice extent

“…Besides these economic assessments of NSR container shipping, it is noted that a few studies have focused on the path optimization problem by applying real or projected ice condition data to the NSR. These studies include Smith and Stephenson (2013), Nam et al (2013), andChoi et al (2015). A few qualitative works applied survey methods to analyze the preferences of shipping companies as to Arctic shipping, for example, Lasserre and Pelletier (2011), Lee and Kim (2015), and Beveridge et al (2016).…”

Finding safe and efficient shipping routes in ice-covered waters: A framework and a model

“…This specifically relates to whether the tool will be used quantitatively for route finding at operational or strategic level, or qualitatively for safety assessment. Various geographical scales are used to demonstrate the feasibility of developed solutions, varying from very local applications or concepts on a small scale, (Takagi et al, 2014;Piehl et al, 2017), through medium-scale solutions within the Baltic Sea or the Norwegian Sea, (Kotovirta et al, 2009;Reimer, 2015; Kaleschke et al, 2016) to large-scale solutions attempting to cover the whole Arctic Sea (Nam et al, 2013;Choi et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2016;Frederking, 2003).…”

“…Finally, the tools can be grouped by a mathematical approach adopted to route finding problem, as follows: genetic algorithms (Choi et al, 2013), finite element method-based potential theory (Piehl et al, 2017), graph search-based algorithms (Nam et al, 2013;Choi et al, 2015;Guinness et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2016), conjugate direction methods (Kotovirta et al, 2009), stochastic dynamic programming , and probabilistic road map method (Takagi et al, 2014).…”

Numerical study on the influence of floating ice on the water-exit hydrodynamic characteristics of a trans-media vehicle

“…With the increasingly serious global warming [2], the open channels and rich resources in the Arctic area have attracted strong attention from the near-Arctic countries, and the strategic position of the Arctic has become more and more important. Strategic deployment in the Arctic must consider not only the effects of temperature changes on the physical properties of water and air, but also the strong interference of floating ice in extremely complex environments on the water-exit process of vehicles.…”