3. Background
This analysis of winter navigation in Finnish sea areas focuses on accident occurrence in the main navigational operations performed after implementing the components included in the FSWNS. Therefore, understanding the aspects covered and controlled by the system is essential for the detection of different clusters influencing the performance of winter navigation. Ice conditions represent the context of the navigational environment in which the FSWNS is applied. Thereby, knowledge of the ice types formed in Finnish sea areas is essential for understanding the peculiarities of winter navigation. Ship independent navigation in ice conditions and icebreaker assistance are the resulting general navigational operation types after the implementation of the winter navigation system. Therefore, the description of the common characteristics of these navigational operations is another key aspect in interpreting the functioning of the system.