• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.423-434
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• 2009

The Arctic environment is sensitive to change of sea-ice distribution. The increase and decrease of sea ice work to an index of globe warming progress. In order to predict the progress of hereafter earth global warming, continuous monitoring regarding a change of the sea ice area in the Arctic should be performed. The remote sensing based on an artificial satellite is most effective on the North Pole. The sea ice observation using a passive microwave sensor has been continued from 1970's. The determination of sea ice extent and ice type is one of the great successes of the passive microwave imagers. In this paper, to investigate the seasonal and inter-annual variation of sea-ice distribution we used here the sea ice data from July 2002 to May 2009 around the Arctic within $60^{\circ}N$ for the AMSR-E 12.5km sea-ice concentration, a passive microwave sensor. From an early analysis of these data, the arctic sea-ice extent has been steadily decreasing at a rate of about 3.1%, accounting for about $2{\times}10^5\;km^2$, which was calculated for the sea-ice cover reaching its minimum extent at the end of each summer. It is also revealed that this trend corresponds to a decline in the multi-year ice that is affected mainly by summer sea surface and air temperature increases. The extent of younger and thinner (first-year) ice decreased to the 2007 minimum, but rapidly recovered in 2008 and 2009 due to the dramatic loss in 2007. Seasonal variations of the sea-ice extent show significant year-to-year variation in the seasons of January-March in the Barents and Labrador seas and August-October in the region from the East Siberian and Chukchi seas to the North Pole. The spatial distribution of multi-year ice (7-year old) indicates that the perennial ice fraction has rapidly shrunk recently out of the East Siberian, Laptev, and Kara seas to the high region of the Arctic within the last seven years and the Northeast Passage could become open year-round in near future.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2010

This study examines changes in the Arctic sea ice associated with global warming by analyzing the climate coupled general circulation models (CGCMs) provided in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We selected nine models for better performance under 20th century climate conditions based on two different criteria, and then estimated the changes in sea ice extent under global warming conditions. Under projected 21st century climate conditions, all models, with the exception of the GISS-AOM model, project a reduction in sea ice extent in all seasons. The mean reduction in summer (-63%) is almost four times larger than that in winter (-16%), resulting an enhancement of seasonal variations in sea ice extent. The difference between the models, however, becomes larger under the 21st century climate conditions than under 20th century conditions, thus limiting the reliability of sea-ice projections derived from the current CGCMs.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2018

Sea ice plays an important role in modulating surface conditions at high and mid-latitudes. It reacts rapidly to climate change, therefore, it is a good indicator for capturing these changes from the Arctic climate. While many models have been used to study the predictability of climate variables, their performance in predicting sea ice was not well assessed. This study examines the predictability of the Arctic sea ice extent from ensemble prediction systems. The analysis is focused on verification of predictability in each model compared to the observation and prediction in particular, on lead time in Sub-seasonal to Seasonal (S2S) scales. The S2S database now provides quasi-real time ensemble forecasts and hindcasts up to about 60 days from 11 centers: BoM, CMA, ECCC, ECMWF, HMCR, ISAC-CNR, JMA, KMA, Meteo France, NCEP and UKMO. For multi model comparison, only models coupled with sea ice model were selected. Predictability is quantified by the climatology, bias, trends and correlation skill score computed from hindcasts over the period 1999 to 2009. Most of models are able to reproduce characteristics of the sea ice, but they have bias with seasonal dependence and lead time. All models show decreasing sea ice extent trends with a maximum magnitude in warm season. The Arctic sea ice extent can be skillfully predicted up 6 weeks ahead in S2S scales. But trend-independent skill is small and statistically significant for lead time over 6 weeks only in summer.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.184-191
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• 2018

Recently, as sea ice in the Arctic has been decreasing due to global warming, it has become easier to develop oil and gas resources buried in the Arctic region. As a result, Russia, the United States, and other Arctic coastal states are increasingly interested in the development of oil and gas resources, and the demand for offshore structures to support Arctic sea resources development is expected to significantly increase. Since offshore structures operating in Arctic regions need to secure safety against various drifting ice conditions, the concept of an ice-strengthened design is introduced here, with a priority on calculation of ice load. Although research on the estimation of ice load has been carried out all over the world, most ice-load studies have been limited to estimating the ice load of the icebreaker in a non-oblique state. Meanwhile, in the case of Arctic offshore structures, although it is also necessary to estimate the ice load according to oblique angles, the overall research on this topic is insufficient. In this paper, we suggest algorithms for calculating the ice load of managed ice (pack ice, 100% concentration) in an oblique state, and discuss validity. The effect of oblique angle according to estimated ice load with various oblique angles was also analyzed, along with the impact of ship speed and ice thickness on ice load.

• Special Issue of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• 2013.12a
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• pp.66-72
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• 2013

The demand for an ice class ship is rising expected to rise according to the increase of energy consumption and the opening of arctic sea routes. Ice class ship should be designed to cope with the severe environmental conditions of arctic sea such as a high mechanical impact and abrasion damage, caused by pack ice, ice bergs and low temperature. The ice class ship hulls are coated with an anti-abrasion and low friction coating such as a solvent free epoxy or high solid-volume epoxy. These coatings require two-component heating pump and a high grade surface preparation. In this study, the coating performances for the arctic vessels, such as puncture absorbed energy, abrasive wear loss, friction coefficients and impact absorbed energy were evaluated. Based on this study, a proper coating performance specification for the arctic vessels was proposed and coating selection guideline in terms of coating performance and workability was also established.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.297-306
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• 2022

We examined potential seasonal prediction of the Korean surface temperature using the relationships between the Arctic Sea Ice Area (SIA) in autumn and the temperature in the following July and February at 850 hPa in East Asia (EA). The Surface Air Temperature (SAT) over Korea shows a similar relationship to that for EA. Since 2007, reduction of autumn SIA has been followed by warming in Korea in July. The regional distribution shows strong correlations in the southern and eastern coastal areas of Korea. The correlations in the sea surface temperature shows the maximum values in July around the Korean Peninsula, consistent with the coastal regions in which the maximum correlations in the Korean SAT are seen. In February, the response of the SAT to the SIA is the opposite of that for the July temperature. The autumn sea ice reduction is followed by cooling over Korea in February, although the magnitude is small. Cooling in the Korean Peninsula in February may be related to planetary wave-like features. Examining the autumn Arctic sea ice variation would be helpful for seasonal prediction of the Korean surface temperature, mostly in July and somewhat in February. Particularly in July, the regression line would be useful as supplementary information for seasonal temperature prediction.

• Strategy21
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• s.43
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• pp.29-55
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• 2018

Arctic sea ice has been retreating as a result of the global warming. Arctic sea ice extent for April 2018 averaged 13.71 million square kilometers. This figure shows far less sea ice compared to the average extent from 1981 to 2010. Meanwhile, 287 times of maritime transits through the Northwest Passage have been made during the 2017 and the first ship traversed the Northern Sea Route without the assistant of ice-breaker in August 2017. Commercialization of the Arctic Passage means significant economic and strategic advantages by shortening the distance. In this article, 'Arctic Passage' means Northern Sea Route along the Arctic coast of Russia and Northwest Passage crossing Canadian Arctic Ocean. As climate changes, the potential feasibility of the Arctic Passage has been drawing international attention. Since navigation in this area remains hazardous in some aspects, IMO adopted Polar Code to promote safe, secure and sustainable shipping through the Arctic Passage. Futhermore, Russia and Canada regulate foreign vessels over the maritime zones with the authority to unilaterally exercise jurisdiction pursuant to the Article 234 of UNCLOS. The dispute over the navigation regime of the arctic passage materialized with Russia proclaimed Dmitrii Laptev and Sannikov Straits as historically belong to U.S.S.R. in the mid 1960s and Canada declared that the waters of the passage are historic internal waters in 1973 for the first time. So as to support their claims, In 1985, Russia and Canada established straight baseline including Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage. The United States has consistently protested that the Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage are straits used for international navigation which are subject to the regime of transit passage. Firstly, it seems that Russia and Canada do not meet the basic requirements for acquiring a historic title. Secondly, since the Law of the Sea had adopted before the establishment of straight baseline over the Russian Arctic Archipelago and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Ships can exercise at least the right of innocent passage. Lastly, Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage have fulfilled the both geographical and functional criteria pertaining to the strait used for international navigation under the international law. Especially, should the arctic passage become commercially viable, it can be expected to accumulate the functional criterion. Russia and Canada regulate the ships navigate in their maritime zones by adopting the higher degree of an environmental standard than generally accepted international rules and standard mainly under the Article 234 of UNCLOS. However, the Article 234 must be interpreted restrictively as this contains constraint on the freedom of navigation. Thus, it is reasonable to consider that the Article 234 is limited only to the EEZ of coastal states. Therefore, ships navigating in the Arctic Passage with the legal status of the territorial sea and the international straits under the law of the sea have the right of innocent passage and transit passage as usual.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.6_1
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• pp.901-915
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• 2017

Recently, global climate change has caused a catastrophic event in the Arctic Ocean, directly and indirectly. The air-sea interaction has caused the significant sea-ice reduction in the Arctic Ocean, and has been accelerating the Arctic warming. Many scientists are worried about the Arctic environment change, suggesting that many of anomalous events will produce direct or indirect biophysical effects on the Arctic. The aim of this study is to understand the inter-annual variability of the Arctic Ocean in wide-view using multi-satellite-derived measurements. Sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice concentration (SIC) data were obtained from Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) and ECMWF ERA-Interim, respectively. Chlorophyll-a concentration (CHL) was obtained from Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Aqua sensor from MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-Aqua) sensor which has continuously observed since 1998. From 1998 to 2016 summer in the Arctic Ocean which was defined as regions over $60^{\circ}N$ in this study, there were three consequences that CHL increase ($0.15mg\;m^{-3}\;decade^{-1}$), SST warming ($0.43^{\circ}C\;decade^{-1}$) and SIC decrease ($-5.37%\;decade^{-1}$). While SST and SIC highly correlated each other (r = -0.76), a relationship between CHL and SIC was very low ($r={\pm}0.1$) because of data limitations. And a relationship between CHL and SST shows meaningful results ($r={\pm}0.66$) with regional differences.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Mechanical Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2011

The measurement of ice properties such as thickness, strength are important to know the performance of the ice breaking vessel. The measuring equipment of ice properties and methods are summarized in this paper. The actual measured data are also described. The strength of ice at Svalbard area on April 2010 is much stronger than the Chukchi Sea on August 2010. The mean strength of Svalbard is about 500 kPa and one of Chukchi Sea is 250 kPa. The first sea trial in Arctic sea using Araon was carried out in the Chukchi Sea. The power and speed was also measured to check the ship performance in ice. The speed was measured from GPS(Global Positioning System) and engine power was recorded from DPS(Dynamic Positioning system) of Araon. The design target of Araon in level ice is 3 knots in 1m thickness and 630 kPa flexible strength but mean speed in Chuckchi sea is 3.98 knots when 6.6 MW engine power, 2.4m ice thickness and 250 kPa strength. This results comes from the difference of ice types and the weak flexible strength of ice but it will be a good information to know the performance of Araon in similar ice condition.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.423-428
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• 2014

Ice loads may be conveniently categorized as local ice loads and global ice loads. Local ice loads are often defined as ice pressures acting on local areas of shell plates and stiffeners. Therefore, local ice loads are defined in all ice class rules. However, directly measuring the local ice pressure using the actual ice class vessel is a very difficult task because appropriate instruments for direct measurement must be installed on the outer hull, and they are easily damaged by direct ice contacts/impacts. This paper focuses on the estimation of the local ice pressure using the data obtained from icebreaking tests in the Arctic sea in 2010 using the Korean icebreaking research vessel (IBRV) ARAON. When she contacted the sea ice, the local deformation of the side shell was measured by the strain gauges attached to the inside of the shell. Simultaneously, the contact area between the side shell and sea ice is investigated by analyzing the distribution of the measured strain data. Finally, the ice pressures for different contact areas are estimated by performing a structural analysis.