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Ice pressure - <Month>

<Month> = January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

General description

Technical description

General description

Table name: Ice pressure - <month>

The ice pressure tables were created by joining the tables for the southern and northern route for each month, as prepared by INSROP Project I.4.2 as part of INSROP Phase 2. These table records refer to points along the ship route segments included in the Tbl_1 shapefile set, which is a part of the dataset provided by INSROP Project I.4.2. These segments are an extract of the ship routes as defined in INSROP Working paper no. 108 (1998), prepared by Work Package 1 (Box B) as part of INSROP Phase 2.

Ice pressures in the ice cover

The mean multiyear values of different pressure intensity probabilities are given for the 20-mile route segments selected within the framework of WP1 Project.

As initial data, the calculated mean monthly values of ice pressure intensity for the period 1960-1985 were used. The calculation method is described in the following:

Ice pressure belongs to the most dangerous phenomenon for ships. However, due to difficulty of observations and measurements, its spatial distribution characteristics were insufficiently investigated with ice pressure observations being of occasional character. However, using the atmospheric pressure databases we can calculate the wind fields in the near-water layer and based on the empirical relations (Busuyev, Fedyakov, 1979), the probability of different intensity of ice pressures can be assessed with sufficient statistical reliability in the prescribed regions at the given time.

The wind fields at a 10 m height for four synoptic times were calculated on the basis of the data set of surface atmospheric pressure above the Arctic Basin at 1° x 1° grid points for 1960-1985. For this purpose, the calculation method formally adopted in Russia was applied (Handbook..., 1994).

In addition to wind, for calculating the probability of different ice pressure intensity the ice concentration data at 0.5° x 0.5° grid points and landfast ice boundaries at 0.25° x 0.25° grid points for 1960-1985 were used.

The following assumptions were adopted for calculating the probability of different pressure intensity:

- the ice cover has average hummock and ridge concentration for this 10-day period;

- ice concentration is equal to 9-10 tenths;

- the relationship between the quantity of ice of different age categories is within mean multiyear values.

For wind speeds derived from the air pressure fields, in each square the statistical distributions were calculated from the following formulas:

P(B) = n1(x) / (deltaX * N) (1),

where n1(x) is the number of parameters possessing the indication

{(x - deltax/2) < (Vi)j < (x + deltax/2)} (2),

where x is the initial data grouping interval; V is the wind; i is the wind speed index, j is the wind direction index by 45° sectors.

Data on the wind direction are subdivided into 3 types: "onshore", "offshore" and "neutral". The wind type was established taking into account the location of the landfast ice boundary and ice concentration by eight points surrounding the calculation (central) point.

For calculation of the probability of different ice pressure intensity, the formula of full probability for the incompatible event groups was used:

P = Sum_k [ P(Bk) * Sum_i[P(Bi) * P(Aik / Bik) ]] (3)

where: i is the wind speed range number and k is the wind type indicator, and Sum_k is the sum from k = 1 to n, and Sum_i is the sum from i = 1 to n.

The conventional probability P(Aik / Bik) was obtained from shipborne observation data.

The probabilistic estimates of ice pressure intensity were obtained for the routes selected in WP1 for the 1960-1985 period.

Technical description

Table source file name: tbl_25_13.txt (as example)

Path: <NSR_DATA>\icesnow\i_4_2

Table type: DText table.

* Ice pressure - <month>

282 records, 7 descriptive fields.

Fields: [<Name>] -- <Alias> (type of field)

[No] -- "No" (Numeric, no decimals)

[Freq_0_1] -- "0-1 point" (Numeric, 1 decimal)

Frequency of occurrence (%) of 0-1 point pressure intensity

[Freq_1] -- "1 point" (Numeric, 1 decimal)

Frequency of occurrence (%) of 1 point pressure intensity

[Freq_1_2] -- "1-2 point" (Numeric, 1 decimal)

Frequency of occurrence (%) of 1-2 point pressure intensity

[Freq_2] -- "2 point" (Numeric, 1 decimal)

Frequency of occurrence (%) of 2 point pressure intensity

[Freq_2_3] -- "2-3 point" (Numeric, 1 decimal)

Frequency of occurrence (%) of 2-3 point pressure intensity

[Freq_3] -- "3 point" (Numeric, 1 decimal)

Frequency of occurrence (%) of 3 point pressure intensity