Icebreaking
Icebreaking operations are led by the Ice-breaking Management in Norrköping. It allocates icebreakers to work areas, issues restrictions, monitors operating conditions and informs shipping stakeholders about ice and traffic conditions. The commanders of icebreakers work relatively independently in their fields.
How ships are assisted
The first icebreaker is on the scene by the time the ice has formed in the archipelagoes of the northern Gulf of Bothnia. The Icebreaking Management Unit issues an ice report notifying all vessels that are bound for ice-covered waters must report well in advance when they will be passing a specified point, such as the lighthouse "Svenska Bjorn". The vessel is then entered in the icebreaker’s computer system and the icebreaker can follow the vessel on its graphic plotting screeen. When the vessel reports to the icebreaker, it is given instructions on suitable routes around and in the ice.
If ice conditions are severe, the vessel’s commander may be instructed to go to a convoy assembly point. If all goes as planned, a number of vessels are gathered in a waiting position and an icebreaker will after a while arrive, usually after leaving a convoy heading south in open ice or open water. The icebreaker then assists the convoy through the ice and leaves vessel after vessel at its destinations or hands vessels over to another icebreaker - perhaps a Finnish one - for further assistance.
Unforeseen changes in ice conditions often require plans to be changed or adjusted. In severe conditions, it may be necessary to tow one vessel at a time or to allocate an additional icebreaker to move the convoy ahead. Sometimes navigability suddenly gets better than expected, in which case vessels can proceed unassisted into the ports. The icebreaker can then tackle other jobs or in the best-case scenario stand still in the water and concentrate on monitoring and directing traffic.
IBNet
The rapid progress in computer technology of recent years has made it easier to plan icebreaking operations. Messages between icebreakers and between the icebreakers and the Icebreaking Management Unit are now exchanged via a computerised information and management system called IBNet.
Contact with the Ice Service
Winter navigation is highly dependent on weather and wind. Icebreakers plan every assistance operation based on current ice conditions and ice and wind forecasts. Weather forecasts are obtained every four hours both from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI).
Both the Finnish and the Swedish Ice Service transmits daily ice forecasts and changes in ice conditions as well as special forecasts for various sea areas to the icebreakers. The icebreakers also have access to ice charts, satellite images and radar satellite images.
The Icebreaking Management has daily phone conferences with meteorologists to discuss the day’s ice conditions and reach consensus on possible development trends for ice conditions.