Ship route planning in Arctic ice

infested waters using Near-Real-Time

satellite image products

Kongsberg Satellite Services

1

Hans Eilif Larsen

KSAT

Arctic Frontier 2016

Topics

• Challenges navigating in Arctic ice

• Demonstration - Tor Viking through NSR

• SAR data used for ice navigation

• Satellite data ingested into navigation system (Transas ECDIS)

• Communication / on-board data reception

• Satellite image planning

• Taking ice drift into account

2

CHALLENGES NAVIGATING IN

ARCTIC ICE

28.01.2016Page 3

Darkness, icy, unknow danger areas…

Challenges for ships operating in Arctic ice

Strategic level

• Finding the safest way

– exposed to various risks related to ice (dependent of ship ice class)

• Most efficient way, save fuel

• Optimize time

• Optimize data and communication costs

Operational level (on-board crew)

• Ice situation is continuously changing due to ice drift

– causing ice pressure areas/ridges (danger)

• More or less alone if anything happens

• Environmental; Darkness…

• Retrieving ice information at the right level and right time efficiently

– Transforming data into operational (detailed) route planning

– Finding areas of open waters within the ice (opportunity)

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DEMONSTRATION

- TOR VIKING THROUGH NSR

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Northern Sea Route (NSR)

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Maritime.no

Completely

alone!

Tor Viking in

NSR (SatAIS)

How could Viking

decide to og

through NSR

without any

assitance of

Russian ice breaker

at this time of the

year, taking the

expected heavy

and changing ice

conditions into

account?

Tor Viking

• Combined AHTS & Ice-breaker (smaller than e.g. IB Oden)

– DNV Icebreaker Ice-10 notation

• Capable of operations in harsh environment offshore regions and Arctic/Sub-

Arctic regions

• Transas ECDIS

• VSAT & Iridium OP– V-Sat Bridge: +46 31 334 4743

– V-Sat Master: +46 31 334 4744

– V-Sat ECR : +46 31 334 4746

– GSM: +1 206 617 5230

– Iridium: +88 16 777 05 225

– 128 kbps/1000MB package

(extended for the cruise)

• Skilled crew

– NSR previously

Route planning

– changing weather conditions and ice conditions

has to be considered

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Maritime.no

The Planned route

- A real challenge

• Seattle Landskrona (Sweden) via NSR

• First time NSR unsupported by Russian ice

breaker

– Icebreaker fleet was either not available

or demanded higher payment to escort

vessels along the route

– Gaining experience operating on their

own, supported by sat.-products

• Save about 12 days compared to sail the

"normal" way via Panama

• 7-8 vessels passing in 2015 (half of 2013

record)

– Probably last ship in 2015 before

completely freezing

• ~10 days within ice, planned 10 knots

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NSR – Sentinel-1

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“Vaygach” assisting

“Deltagracht” to Sabetta,

detected in Sentinel EW images.

Ice Track clearly visible.

FleetDSS by

Stormgeo / AWT

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

SATELLITE DATA USED FOR

ICE NAVIGATION

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Information services and onboard viewers

- aiding ship routing through ice• Weather forecasts

• Ice charts/products

– Ice thickness

– Ice concentration

• Ice forecasts (24h, 48h, 72h)

• Optical satellite imagery (usefulness limited by clouds and darkness)

• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images

– Sufficient resolution mapping leads, ridges and heavy ice

– Needs interpretation by the user

• Onboard viewers

– PolarIce - ViewIce/ICEMAR (Ice products and satellite imagery)

– Transas ECDIS (Navigation)

– IceRadar - Onboard

17

AARI Ice Chart

Sentinel-1 image

19

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

Optical and SAR (Sentinel-1) images combined

20

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

Suggested WayPoints

21

Tracks

22

NEAR REAL TIME DELIVERY -COMMUNICATION / ON-BOARD DATA

RECEPTION

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Critical key factors

- using SAR-images navigating within ice• Fresh images – ice is drifting

– Dependent of location, more rapid changes within straits

– At least once a day

– On-time image acquisition planning

• Sentinel-1 not continuous coverage

• Schedule might change due to changing ice conditions

• Image resolution – 100 m normally sufficient

• Image transfer method and file sizes

– Data transfer at high latitudes (SatCom), large files is an issue

• ~5 Mbytes could still work

• Costly data communication (Iridium)

– Online viewer solutions do normally not work

• Data formats

24

Sentinel-1 image in ViewIce

25

PolarIce – ViewIce & ICEMAR

Route planning using SAR-imagery

- Senitinel-1

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

Waypoints export to ECDIS- derived from finding polynyas in SAR-image

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

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FMI-Ice-product

- Kara Sea - Ice thickness

SATELLITE DATA INGESTED

INTO NAVIGATION SYSTEM (TRANSAS ECDIS)

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Sentinel-1 into Transas ECDIS

Arctic Frontier 201633Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

Sentinel-1 image into ECDIS via PolarIce

• Used as aid to navigation to

– avoid areas with ridges and hummocked ice

– find leads and cracks with lighter ice

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Sentinel 1 SAR scenes compressed,

cropped and downloaded from

PolarIce and ingested into ECDIS

151201 1951 UTC Sentinel1 HH 40 m Res SAR Image Overlay on ECDIS

Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

Methodology

• Methodology was to download satellite imagery to ECDIS system

– identify leads and cracks with light ice

– then use ice radar to do the local area fine navigation.

• The ship could increase speed from 5 to 12 knots using 3 (of 4) engines

finding those areas with lighter ice

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Restrictions related to ingestion into ECDIS

• ECDIS not online

• File types

• Format issues

– GeoTiff images -grey scale (certain projections /Restricted to special standard)

• Transas receive this from the Russian Academy who makes ice charts

– grib files (weather/ocean data)

– JPEG 2000

• Projections

– UPS North EPSG 32661 tested OK

– NSIDC Sea Ice Polar Stereographic North (EPSG Projection 3413) – OK

• Possible to extract from ViewIce

• Image size restriction

– Related to specific HW restrictions

• File naming

– Special file naming convention

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ROUTE PLANNING USING SAR DATA

- TAKING ICE DRIFT INTO ACCOUNT

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Changing ice conditions

• Wind

• Ocean currents (tide)

causing ice drift and ice pressure

– In fjord systems and straits the dominant ice drift direction is often based

on tidal currents

– In open sea wind the dominant factor

• Velocity ~3% of wind speed

• ~30 degrees to the right because of coriolis in the Northern Hemisphere

• Ice drift estimated by identifying the same ice floes at two different stages

• Ice compression and cracks are not present at the next stage, or vice versa.

• In Kara Sea experienced north-northwest (tracks in ice by small islands)

• Need to be aware of and/or compensate waypoint planning

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Copernicus Sentinel data 2015 Copernicus Sentinel data 2015

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Maritime.no

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Track of Tor Viking

Track of Nuclear Icebreaker Vaygach assisting to the east with Tanker in notch

151201 1951 UTC Sentinel1 HH 40 m Res SAR Image trough PolarViewIce and

Tor Viking intersects Icebreaker Vaycach ice channel and follow the track to west

Areas of New Ice

Track of

Vaygach

closes

rapidly due

to Ice

Pressure

Kara sea

- SAR images and ice products

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Products used

• SAR images: Sentinel-1 (EW-mode)

– Additional SAR mission products: RADARSAT-2 and RISAT-1

• Optical satellite image - NPP VIIRS (and MODIS)

• AARI ice products

• FMI Ice thickness

• Other relevant products

– Ice drift

– Ice pressure

• Users

– Bridge at Tor Viking (Bridge Team, Daniel Arnesson - Master)

– Viking Ice Consultants (Andreas Kjøl)

– Erik Almkvist (Master Mariner / Ice advisor at Viking ship office)

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SATELLITE IMAGE PLANNING

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Image acquisition planning

Sentinel-1 Coverage- Acquisitions estimated to be < 48 h before ship passing

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Planning to acquire images at the time ship entering

area of image footprint

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151202 2032 UTC Sentinel1 Scene

Entry scene pos approx N 73 07 E 162 49

Planning to ensure “fresh” SAR images

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Planned Sentinel-1 acquistions 7th / 8th Dec

- Not complete coverage

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SUMMARY

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Lessons learned

• SAR-imagery is (still) needed for navigation within ice

• Gaps in Sentinel-1 coverage, especially in the eastern part of NSR

– Images for other missions needed (RISAT1, RADARSAT2)

– Continuous update of image acquisition planning is needed when trying to

plan for Sentinel-1 coverage gaps

• Sentinel-1 EW resolution even better than needed for navigation within the ice

• Acquisition planning for a “moving target” is challenging

• ViewIce/PolarIce-tool is mostly intuitive to use

• Ingesting imagery into ECDIS is a challenge

– Testing needed, again and again…

• What SAR-images could be used for onboard use;

– Requires experience in interpretation

– Polynyas

• Images need at least daily, more often if ice drift is significant for the area

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Benefits of using NRT SAR imagery for

within ice navigation

• Viking emphasized benefits

– “We found the lead in the satellite image, the speed went up from 5 to 12

knots”

• Saving time

• Saving bunkers

– Risk reduction

• Avoiding danger areas of heavy ice

• Better onboard environment

• Reducing risk of getting stuck in the ice

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kongsberg.com

Thanks to

• Viking

– Viking Ice Consultancy (Andreas Kjøl)

– Crew onboard Tor Viking and Balder Viking

– Master Mariner Erik Almkvist

– Photos Björn Johansson & Stefan Helgesson

• PolarIce project partners for development

– The work described here has been supported by the

European Union’s FP7 project, POLARICE.

– VTT; Robin Berglund for valuable technical support

of ViewIce

– BAS; Andreas for quick enabling new test “office

users”

• Transas technical support

Hans Eilif Larsen

hans@ksat.no

Kongsberg Satellite Services AS