Extreme waves generated in a future Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is widely claimed to be an unpredictable environment where safety and security are at risk for a plethora of reasons. In this paper, we examine the risks related to waves from view. Believing the one reason for the Arctic environment´s unpredictability is the annual decreasing percentage of permanent ice, we have focused on consequences for the design wave height in the case of an open Arctic Sea during the longest possible fetches and have compared those results to the wave height estimates that are given today. The results show a significant change in the characteristics wave heights. Those changes will dramatically influence the coasts by accelerating erosion effects but also any offshore operations that already exist in Arctic seas, putting human lives in danger.