Ch 64. Navigation in the Arctic

Chapter Overview:

Navigation in the Arctic is of growing importance in the 21^st century. The historically inaccessible Arctic Ocean has gained economic attention as a result of declining sea ice, sparking the expansion of many industries in the region. It is essential that these activities be undertaken sustainably and safely, and suitable navigation equipment and practices are tantamount to that success.

Navigation systems in the Arctic at sea and in the air are the topic of this chapter. At sea, we discuss current methods of ice navigation and foreshadow future technologies. We begin with current maritime technologies used in the Arctic along with their limitations and challenges. This includes challenges with poor sea chart quality, mapping, navigation equipment, and ship winterization as well as best practices with operations and route planning through ice. We formulate a roadmap for safe Arctic navigation in the 21^st century based on emerging technology. This includes advances in ship-based sensing and perception along with improved situational awareness and data sharing. This brings together information such as ship traffic, ice conditions, and weather, leading to more effective routing through ice. This architecture is enabled by GNSS modernizations on the horizon. With coming multi-frequency and multi-constellation, we show that GNSS integrity can be achieved in the Arctic for all levels of required service through Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) and Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM).

For air operations, there are a multitude of airports in the Arctic Circle which support local activities and bring in supplies from afar. These generally small to medium sized airports do not have ground-based infrastructure for instrument landing and would benefit greatly from a GNSS-based precision approach. We shows that precision approach requirements can be achieved in the Arctic through coming multi-frequency and multi-constellation GNSS with SBAS or ARAIM.

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