Northwest Passage, Northern Sea Route open again in 2010?
August 25th, 2010 by Jim JustAccording to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), neither the Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic nor the Northern Sea Route along the coast of Siberia are yet free of ice and open – but it’s looking like they soon will be.
A Russian gas tanker set out from Murmansk on August 14 across the Northern Sea Route, escorted by two nuclear ice breakers, and is expected to deliver its cargo of gas condensate to China by early September.
Ice in the Vilkitsky Strait is the only remaining impediment to shipping across the Northern Sea Route . . .
. . . as seen in this NSIDC graphic of sea ice extent.
While this latest graphic shows the northern route of the Northwest Passage as being open, NSIDC’s Arctic Sea Ice News reports that as of August 17 neither the northern route (Western Parry Channel) nor the southern route (Amundsen’s Passage) through the Northwest Passage were completely clear of ice. NSIDC says that sea ice area within the northern route is currently well below the 1968 to 2000 average and almost a month ahead of the clearing that was observed in 2007. In the southern route, there is still a substantial amount of ice.
If winds push sea ice away from the entrance to M’Clure Strait, the northern route of the Northwest Passage could open again this year – if it hasn’t already.
M'Clure Strait, Northwest Territories, Canada.
On August 21, 2007, the Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need of an icebreaker. The Northwest Passage opened again on August 25, 2008. In late August 2008, satellite images showed that the last ice blockage of the Northern Sea Route had melted – which would be the first time since satellite records began that both the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route were open simultaneously.
The Northern Sea Route was open in 2005 but closed again by 2007. A Russian nuclear icebreaker escorted a small convoy including two Western commercial vessels westward through the Northern Sea Route in 2009.