VLADIVOSTOK, May 31. /TASS/. Specialists of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI, St. Petersburg) announced the development of methods for long-term forecasts that can determine ice navigation conditions to extend the Northern Sea Route's navigation term, head of the Institute's Ice Sailing Research Laboratory Tatyana Alekseeva said at the Maritime Congress in Vladivostok.

"We have developed methods for long-term forecasting to determine ice conditions for sailing, which are based on two main processes in the ice cover - zones of rupture <...> and compression zones," she said. "For sailing purposes, we choose rupture zones and, naturally, avoid compression zones." Those processes can be predicted if ice is eyed in the long term as a single system with the Arctic Ocean, if scientists study long-period waves, natural fluctuations of the Arctic Ocean, the influence of Pacific and Atlantic complexes, she added.

The methods have been approved by Roshydromet (Russia's hydrometeorology service). They have been used on the North Sea Route already, she said. The scientist gave an example where the Northern Lights platform was led along NSR in 2023.

"By using this method, we have determined navigation windows, the timing when the platform can safely start moving along the Northern Sea Route, managing to pass it during the ice-free period to enter the Pacific Ocean before severe storms start," she continued. "Our institute has guided successfully the platform, which reached Vladivostok."

This approach is used also to plan cargo shipments for construction of a port in the Sea of Okhotsk. Experts have suggested optimal sailing routes from the port of Elga along the Sakhalin coast to the Southeast Asian countries for severe, medium and light types of ice conditions. By using the methods, specialists will develop new navigation areas, will plan numbers and types of vessels for summer and winter navigations, and thus fuel will be saved when moving in ice, the expert stressed.

The Far East Maritime Congress is held every other year. It is a platform to develop the marine industry. This year's event features more than 1,200 participants from five countries, including top managers of leading marine industry companies. The congress is supported by the Russian Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, and the Primorsky Region Government. TASS is the event's general information partner.