•Sea-Ice free Arctic contributes to the projected North Atlantic warming minimum by weakening the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). •The weakened AMOC is driven and sustained by the weakened wind stress over the sub polar gyre associated with a weaker Icelandic low in autumn. •The study presented here emphasizes the role of ocean–atmosphere interaction on the sea-ice free impact, implies a lagged teleconnection through the ocean bridge. ; This work has been supported by the Research Council of Norway through the BlueArc project (207650/E10), the European Union 7th Framework Programme (FP7 2007-2013) through the NACLIM project (308299) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41375083). This work also contributes to the NordForsk-funded project GREENICE (61841): Impacts of Sea-Ice and Snow-Cover Changes on Climate, Green Growth, and Society and the EU H2020 Blue-Action project (727852). Computational and storage resources for this work have been provided by NOTUR (nn2343k) and NORSTORE (ns9015k).
In: Buixadé Farré , A , Stephenson , S R , Chen , L , Czub , M , Dai , Y , Demchev , D , Efimov , Y , Graczyk , P , Grythe , H , Keil , K , Kivekäs , N , Kumar , N , Liu , N , Matelenok , I , Myksvoll , M , O'Leary , D , Olsen , J , Pavithran , S , Petersen , E , Raspotnik , A , Ryzhov , I , Solski , J , Suo , L , Troein , C , Valeeva , V , van Rijckevorsel , J & Wighting , J 2014 , ' Commercial Arctic shipping through the Northeast Passage : routes, resources, governance, technology, and infrastructure ' Polar Geography , vol 37 , no. 4 . DOI:10.1080/1088937X.2014.965769
The Russian and Norwegian Arctic are gaining notoriety as an alternative maritime route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and as sources of natural resources. The renewed interest in the Northeast Passage or the Northern Sea Route is fueled by a recession of Arctic sea ice coupled with the discovery of new natural resources at a time when emerging and global markets are in growing demand for them. Driven by the expectation of potential future economic importance of the region, political interest and governance has been rapidly developing, mostly within the Arctic Council. However, this paper argues that optimism regarding the potential of Arctic routes as an alternative to the Suez Canal is overstated. The route involves many challenges: jurisdictional disputes create political uncertainties; shallow waters limit ship size; lack of modern deepwater ports and search and rescue (SAR) capabilities requires ships to have higher standards of autonomy and safety; harsh weather conditions and free-floating ice make navigation more difficult and schedules more variable; and more expensive ship construction and operation costs lessen the economic viability of the route. Technological advances and infrastructure investments may ameliorate navigational challenges, enabling increased shipping of natural resources from the Arctic to global markets.
