Operating vessels in polar waters presents unique challenges for safety, efficiency, and sustainability. When ships encounter sea ice or icebergs, fuel consumption can increase dramatically compared to operations in open water, resulting in higher operational costs and increased greenhouse gas emissions. As Arctic and Antarctic maritime activity continues to grow, there is a pressing need for solutions that help vessels navigate ice-covered waters more efficiently

NAVTOR is proud to be a partner in GUIDE (Green Utilisation of Ship and Ice Data for Emission Reduction), an international research and innovation project that brings together research institutions, industry partners, and vessel operators to improve understanding of ship performance in ice-affected environments. By combining satellite observations, weather forecasts, shipboard sensors, and advanced modelling, the project aims to generate actionable insights that enable safer, more energy-efficient operations.

As climate change drives increasingly unpredictable weather patterns with reduced and changing ice conditions, access to reliable information on sea ice, icebergs, ice edges, and vessel icing is becoming increasingly important for maritime safety and voyage planning. GUIDE addresses this challenge by exploring how observed and forecasted ice-related data can be collected, combined, and transformed into practical decision-support tools for the maritime industry.

Within the project, NAVTOR focuses on integrating enhanced ice intelligence, like ice coverage and tracking of icebergs, into its digital ecosystem, including NavStation and the Weather Routing Optimisation Service (WROS). This includes investigating new capabilities for visualising ice information during voyage planning, incorporating advanced ice conditions into route optimisation, and thereby delivering improved decision support to vessels operating in ice-prone regions.

GUIDE also explores advanced services such as improved vessel icing calculations and the fusion of multiple global data sources, including satellite observations and environmental datasets. Through collaboration with leading research and industry partners, the project will validate new approaches in real operational environments to ensure that resulting solutions are practical, scalable, and directly applicable to vessel operations.

Through GUIDE, NAVTOR reinforces its strategic commitment to safety, sustainability and data-driven innovation. By turning complex ship and ice data into actionable operational insights, the project contributes to more efficient polar transport and operations, reduced emissions, and safer navigation in some of the world’s most challenging maritime environments, e.g. the Northern Sea Route that is already experiencing an increase in traffic.

Source: NAVTOR