• Atmosphere
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.277-288
• /
• 2016

Polar lows are intense mesoscale cyclones that mainly occur over the sea in polar regions. Owing to their small spatial scale of a diameter less than 1000 km, simulating polar lows is a challenging task. At King Sejong station in West Antartica, polar lows are often observed. Despite the recent significant climatic changes observed over West Antarctica, adequate validation of regional simulations of extreme weather events such as polar lows are rare for this region. To address this gap, simulation results from a recent version of the Polar Weather Research and Forecasting model (Polar WRF) covering Antartic Peninsula at a high horizontal resolution of 3 km are validated against near-surface meteorological observations. We selected a case of high wind speed event on 7 January 2013 recorded at Automatic Meteorological Observation Station (AMOS) in King Sejong station, Antarctica. It is revealed by in situ observations, numerical weather prediction, and reanalysis fields that the synoptic and mesoscale environment of the strong wind event was due to the passage of a strong mesoscale polar low of center pressure 950 hPa. Verifying model results from 3 km grid resolution simulation against AMOS observation showed that high skill in simulating wind speed and surface pressure with a bias of $-1.1m\;s^{-1}$ and -1.2 hPa, respectively. Our evaluation suggests that the Polar WRF can be used as a useful dynamic downscaling tool for the simulation of Antartic weather systems and the near-surface meteorological instruments installed in King Sejong station can provide invaluable data for polar low studies over West Antartica.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.617-633
• /
• 2016

Jangbogo station is located in Terra Nova Bay over the East Antarctica, which is often affected by individual storms moving along nearby storm tracks and a katabatic flow from the continental interior towards the coast. A numerical simulation for two strong wind events of maximum instantaneous wind speed ($41.17m\;s^{-1}$) and daily mean wind speed ($23.92m\;s^{-1}$) at Jangbogo station are conducted using the polar-optimized version of Weather Research and Forecasting model (Polar WRF). Verifying model results from 3 km grid resolution simulation against AWS observation at Jangbogo station, the case of maximum instantaneous wind speed is relatively simulated well with high skill in wind with a bias of $-3.3m\;s^{-1}$ and standard deviation of $5.4m\;s^{-1}$. The case of maximum daily mean wind speed showed comparatively lower accuracy for the simulation of wind speed with a bias of -7.0 m/s and standard deviation of $8.6m\;s^{-1}$. From the analysis, it is revealed that the each case has different origins for strong wind. The highest maximum instantaneous wind case is caused by the approach of the strong synoptic low pressure system moving toward Terra Nova Bay from North and the other daily wind maximum speed case is mainly caused by the katabatic flow from the interiors of Terra Nova Bay towards the coast. Our evaluation suggests that the Polar WRF can be used as a useful dynamic downscaling tool for the simulation and investigation of high wind events at Jangbogo station. However, additional efforts in utilizing the high resolution terrain is required to reduce the simulation error of high wind mainly caused by katabatic flow, which is received a lot of influence of the surrounding terrain.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.409-416
• /
• 2008

Recently, KARI developed "KOMPSAT-2 Terminal for Polar Station" which is high performance system newly required for stimulating KOMPSAT-2 application. The KOMPSAT-2 Terminal for Polar Station consists of one receiving system and two processing systems. The receiving system has been installed at Svalbard Satellite Station located at Norwegian Svalbard island. and the two receiving systems have been installed at Kongsberg Satellite Service AS located at Tromso Norway and Spot Image SA located at Toulouse France respectively. In this paper overall items of KOMPSAT-2 Terminal for Polar Station, which includes requirements, designs and operation concepts, are to be addressed with the verification result on its performance.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.169-176
• /
• 2014

Since the operation of the King Sejong Station (KSS) started in Antarctic Peninsula in 1989, there have been continuous efforts to perform the observation for the upper atmosphere. The observations during the initial period of the station include Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) and Michelson Interferometer for the mesosphere and thermosphere, which are no longer in operation. In 2002, in collaboration with York University, Canada, the Spectral Airglow Temperature Imager (SATI) was installed to observe the temperature in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region and it has still been producing the mesopause temperature data until present. The observation was extended by installing the meteor radar in 2007 to observe the neutral winds and temperature in the MLT region during the day and night in collaboration with Chungnam National University. We also installed the all sky camera in 2008 to observe the wave structures in the MLT region. All these observations are utilized to study on the physical characteristics of the MLT region and also on the wave phenomena such as the tide and gravity wave in the upper atmosphere over KSS that is well known for the strong gravity wave activity. In this article, brief introductions for the currently operating instruments at KSS will be presented with their applications for the study of the upper atmosphere.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.185-193
• /
• 2018

Jang Bogo Station (JBS), the second Korean Antarctic research station, was established in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica ($74.62^{\circ}S$ $164.22^{\circ}E$) in February 2014 in order to expand the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) research capabilities. One of the main research areas at JBS is space environmental research. The goal of the research is to better understand the general characteristics of the polar region ionosphere and thermosphere and their responses to solar wind and the magnetosphere. Ground-based observations at JBS for upper atmospheric wind and temperature measurements using the Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) began in March 2014. Ionospheric radar (VIPIR) measurements have been collected since 2015 to monitor the state of the polar ionosphere for electron density height profiles, horizontal density gradients, and ion drifts. To investigate the magnetosphere and geomagnetic field variations, a search-coil magnetometer and vector magnetometer were installed in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Since JBS is positioned in an ideal location for auroral observations, we installed an auroral all-sky imager with a color sensor in January 2018 to study substorms as well as auroras. In addition to these observations, we are also operating a proton auroral imager, airglow imager, global positioning system total electron content (GPS TEC)/scintillation monitor, and neutron monitor in collaboration with other institutes. In this article, we briefly introduce the observational activities performed at JBS and the preliminary results of these observations.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.203-215
• /
• 2021

The auroral observation has been started at Jang Bogo Station (JBS), Antarctica by using a visible All-sky camera (v-ASC) in 2018 to routinely monitor the aurora in association with the simultaneous observations of the ionosphere, thermosphere and magnetosphere at the station. In this article, the auroral observations are introduced with the analysis procedure to recognize the aurora from the v-ASC image data and to compute the auroral occurrences and the initial results on their spatial and temporal distributions are presented. The auroral occurrences are mostly confined to the northern horizon in the evening sector and extend to the zenith from the northwest to cover almost the entire sky disk over JBS at around 08 MLT (magnetic local time; 03 LT) and then retract to the northeast in the morning sector. At near the magnetic local noon, the occurrences are horizontally distributed in the northern sky disk, which shows the auroral occurrences in the cusp region. The results of the auroral occurrences indicate that JBS is located most of the time in the polar cap near the poleward boundary of the auroral oval in the nightside and approaches closer to the oval in the morning sector. At around 08 MLT (03 LT), JBS is located within the auroral oval and then moves away from it, finally being located in the cusp region at the magnetic local noon, which indicates that the location of JBS turns out to be ideal to investigate the variabilities of the poleward boundary of the auroral oval from long-term observations of the auroral occurrences. The future plan for the ground auroral observations near JBS is presented.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.84-96
• /
• 2012

Some gorgonians in the families, Primnoidae and Isididae within the suborder Calcaxonia were collected from subtidal zones between depths of 10 and 45 m in the coastal regions of King Sejong Station ($62^{\circ}13'S$, $058^{\circ}47'W$), Korea Polar Research Institute of Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) by SCUBA diving from 2009 to 2011. Three species in the Primnoidae, $Arntzia$ $gracilis$ (Molander, 1929), $Thouarella$ ($Thouarella$) $antarctica$ (Valenciennes, 1846) and $Onogorgia$ $nodosa$ (Molander, 1929), and also one species in the family Isididae, $Tenuisis$ $microspiculata$ (Molander, 1929) are newly recorded to octocorallian fauna in Marian Cove and Potter Cove of King George Island. These four species have been described in detail.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.345-348
• /
• 2016

In December 2015, we have installed neutron monitor at the Jang Bogo station in Antarctica. The Jang Bogo station is the second science station which is located at the coast ($74^{\circ}\;37.4^{\prime}S$, $164^{\circ}\;13.7^{\prime}E$) of Terra Nova Bay in Northern Victoria Land of Antarctica. A neutron monitor is an instrument to detect neutrons from secondary cosmic rays collided by the atmosphere. The installation of neutron monitor at Jang Bogo station is a part of transferred mission for neutron monitor at McMurdo station of USA. Among 18 tubes of 18-NM64 neutron monitor, we have completed relocation of 6 tubes and the rest will be transferred in December 2017. Currently, comparison of data from both neutron monitors is under way and there is a good agreement between the data. The neutron monitor at Jang Bogo station will be quite useful to study the space weather when the installation is completed.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.645-652
• /
• 2003

The coastal environment of King George Island is potentially subject to contamination by pollutants arising from station operations, such as emissions from fossil fuel burning, oil spills, waste disposal, etc. As a preparatory step to assess such impacts on the marine environment and living organisms of this island, two molluscan species (the bivalve Laternula elliptica and the gastropod Nacella concinna) were selected as biomonitors for metal pollution monitoring, and their baseline levels have been investigated for the past several years at King Sejong Station. In this review, variability of the baseline levels is discussed in relation to body size, tissue type, and sex. Natural elevations of some metals are also discussed with respect to the environmental characteristics of this region.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
• /
• 2006.10a
• /
• pp.122-123
• /
• 2006