Abstract
The Northern Sea Route ( NSR) as a part of the Arctic Ocean is very important for sea transportation to the Siberean coastal and river settlements, as well as for future transportation between Europe and the Paci® c Ocean countries. Recent opening of the gigantic oil and gas deposits on the Siberean shelf will require the build-up of a specialeet for eA cient marine oil and gas operations in this area. However, round-the-year navigation as well other marine operations (® shery, mining, oil and gas reconnaissance, etc. ) at the diA erent parts of the Arctic Ocean is a very complicated problem and an optimal choiceof the concrete sea route directions depends on numerous environmental factors. Environmental conditions which determine the high-latitude navigation in the North Pole area depend on seasonal and mean-annual distribution of water masses in the Arctic Ocean. An important factor which inuences marine operations in the Arctic Ocean is the presence of round-the-year ice. This is a complicated regional and global-scale process which depends on the location and properties of basic oceanic massif ice regime, on patterns of seasonal and mean-annual distribution of the basic massif 's spurs, on the behaviour of the local ice massifs which in each area of the Arctic Ocean have their own characteristic features of the seasonal and mean-annual variability. The location and drift of the basic oceanic ice massif's spurs are variable para- meters. These spurs consist of the residual ® rst-year ice, and the second-year and multi-year pack iceoes. The thickness of this ice can be more than 3m and its invasion in the NSR area creates an especially dangerous situation for marine operations. Control of this phenomenon by all-weather remote sensing instruments is therefore extremely desirable. Another signi® cant factor which creates the favourable inuence for the ice navigation in the Arctic Ocean is the round-the-year presence of the vast recurring
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