Russian shipping in the Arctic is benefiting from winds that are driving the oldest and thickest sea ice towards North America, further opening a remote region that is thawing amid global warming, scientists say.
The thinning Russian ice could help liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, due to start exports from Russia’s Yamal Peninsula in late 2017, to navigate an icy route east to Asia for more than a planned six months of the year, they said.
Almost all attention on Arctic shipping has focused on how global warming is shrinking the extent of ice around the North Pole, opening a summertime short-cut route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
But little-noticed shifts in the age of the ice, driven by prevailing winds and currents, are also helping Russia.
“Winds are blowing the ice out of the Northern Sea Route along the coast of Russia” and towards North America, said Jeremy Mathis, Director of the Arctic Research Program at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA maps show that almost all the ice near Russia in winter is now only a year old and typically up to about 2 metres (6 feet 6 inches) thick, with older and more jagged ice concentrated towards North America.