Will the Opening of the Northwest Passage Transform Global Shipping Anytime Soon?
With the melting of Arctic Ocean ice, the fabled waterway between Europe and Asia has been open to shipping the past two summers--or has it?
Will the Opening of the Northwest Passage Transform Global Shipping Anytime Soon?
- GOING WITH THE FLOE: Here is one of the buoys that Bruno Tremblay deploys on the ice in the Canadian archipelago. Instruments like this send hourly data on their location via satellites to Tremblay. These ice mass balance buoys also measure internal ice temperature, ice thickness and position as well as, in future, internal stresses in the ice that tell scientists how much stress it can take before it starts to break... Robert Magee
- LIQUID HIGHWAY: Despite this past summer being the second-lowest on record for sea ice cover in the Arctic, the most direct route through the passage remained dotted with ice floes. This satellite image from mid-August 2008 shows the direct route through the Northwest Passage as a solid orange line... ESA
- NORTHERN EXPOSURE: The most direct route through the Northwest Passage (orange line) opened up last year. (The path which did not clear, is depicted by the blue line.) As opposed to the other, more southern, routes through the passage, this northern one is more direct and deeper, making it attractive to freighters in search of a shortcut between Europe and Asia... ESA
