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

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.446-463
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• 2022

This study suggests the need for polar literacy education as an effective conceptual system to explain climate change in terms of science education in line with the common effort of humankind to respond to global environmental changes. To this end, we investigated the status of polar literacy in high school students through quantitative tests and qualitative interviews and discussed the resulting implications. A total of 329 high school sophomore students from two high schools participated in a test consisting of 25 true and false questions developed by referring to the Polar Literacy Principles, while 13 students agreed to be interviewed. The results showed that a somewhat insufficient understanding and conceptual gaps appeared regarding several areas of the Polar Literacy Principles. Knowledge of the geographic features of the polar regions was weak, and little was known about the components and key characteristics of the cryosphere. The lack of understanding of these concepts results in the inability of students to link the operational mechanisms of polar and global climate change sufficiently. While accepting unsatisfactory concepts in the school curriculum without criticism from outside media, students perceived the mechanism of climate change as somewhat monotonous or distorted. Moreover, linguistic information, analogies, and visual observation were used as cognitive strategies to compensate for the ambiguous understanding of polar and climate change. Based on the abovementioned results, we argue that polar literacy education should be introduced as a new knowledge system that can be used to aid a systematic and comprehensive understanding of climate change within the school science curriculum. Additionally, we suggest the following implications: review the consistency of knowledge related to polar literacy in other subjects, provide critical standards for out-of-school media information related to climate change, examine students' misconceptions, and identify improved thinking strategies.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.281-290
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• 2011

This study examined the change in sea surface temperature (SST) around the Korean peninsula since industrialization at year 1880, and its possible causes using observation based data from the Hadley Center, the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and National Climate Data Center. Since year 1880, There have been multi-decadal fluctuations with a gradual reduction from 1880 to around 1940, and from 1950-1980. There has then been a marked increase from 1940-1950, and from 1980 to the present. The ocean surface warming is larger during the boreal winter than summer, and greater in the south. The multi-decadal SST fluctuations around the Korean Peninsula are largely consistent with the negative phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which fluctuates with periods of about 20-50 years. Secondly, the El Ni$\tilde{n}$o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), whose long period component moves along with the PDO, appears to influence the SST near the Korean Peninsula, especially in recent decades. Overall, the SST around the Korean Peninsula has warmed since year 1880 by about $1^{\circ}C$, which is about twice the global-mean ocean surface warming. This long-term warming is aligned with an increase in greenhouse gas concentration, as well as local factors such as the PDO.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.734-751
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to prepare basic data to reflect polar literacy education in the school curriculum. The perception about the polar regions, teaching experience, and polar-related cognitive and affective characteristics of teachers were investigated. The survey was conducted among 56 elementary, middle, and high school teachers from schools from 10 major cities and surrounding regions, based on their perceptions of the polar region, current teaching status, polar knowledge, and beliefs and attitudes toward polar region and climate change. Results showed that although teachers' polar information efficacy was low, they positively evaluated the status of educators in resolving polar and climate change problems, and prioritized global citizenship values over practical purposes. The experience of teaching polar region and climate change issues at schools varied across subjects and non-subjects, but showed a passive aspect in teaching development, such as wanting to be provided with consolidated learning materials. On the cognitive aspect, teachers revealed an ambiguous understanding of the mechanisms and processes by which polar change and climate influence each other. On the affective aspect, most teachers showed strong beliefs and attitudes for polar-related issues beyond the school level, but their behavior choices were relatively lower. Based on the results, we propose the following as recommendations: providing opportunities and materials to promote polar knowledge, discovering educational materials in various contexts to form values and attitudes, developing educational materials from polar research materials, identifying misconceptions about polar knowledge among students and teachers, strengthening elementary school teachers' polar literacy, and cultivating positive attitudes and values toward polar issues.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.64-67
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• 2007

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.83-97
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• 2022

The Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica is one of the most affected regions by climate change, but it is one of the least studied realms due to difficulties in access. Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) launched a research project in the Amundsen Sea in 2010 using the icebreaker research vessel (IBRV) Araon and has been conducting various research initiatives. In this paper, previous researches derived from the Amundsen Sea Embayment by Korean researchers are introduced. Through previous studies, researchers have been able to interpret the environmental and biogeochemical changes according to the inflow Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) and provide information for climate models. In particular, researches using radiocarbon isotopes (¹⁴C) were introduced to understand the physical and biogeochemical mechanisms of the carbon cycle in the Amundsen Sea. Opportunely, with the construction of a second icebreaker research vessel, the direction for systematic and long-term polar data acquisition can be presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry, and Cartography Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.95-100
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• 2009

Global warming melts polar ice, changes ocean currents, creates variation of local climate, and inundates low-altitude regions resulting in disasters to mankind. Accordingly, developed countries including U.S.A. and U.K. spend great amounts of efforts and money to plan and manage research activities on polar ice which is regarded as a key indicator of climate change. The proposed research aims to provide basic information for chasing and monitoring the melting phenomena of polar ice through multiple GPS to enhance the GPS quality.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2012

We investigated the interannual relationship between chlorophyll concentrations in the western North Pacific and tropical cyclones (TCs) in the western North Pacific by analyzing data collected for >12 years. Despite the short-term scale (2~3 weeks) in the contribution of tropical cyclones to phytoplankton, the current study revealed that the long-term chlorophyll variability in the western North Pacific is profoundly related to long-term variability in the frequency of TCs. It was also found that the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) tends to control such relationships between the 2 bio-physical systems. This result suggests a significant climatic relationship between TC activity and marine phytoplankton, and also suggests the possibility of more accurate estimations of primary production in the western North Pacific.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 2012

Antarctica is very sensitive to climate change but the number of stations is not sufficient to accurately analyze climate change in this regoin. Model reanalysis data supplements the lack of observation and can be used as long term data to verify climate change. In this study, the 20CR (Twentieth Century Reanalysis) Project data from NCEP/NCAR and monthly mean data (temperature, solar radiation and longwave radiation) from 1871 to 2008, was used to analyze the temperature trend and change in radiation. The 20CR data was used to validate the observation data from Antarctica since 1950 and the correlation coefficients between these data were determined to be over 0.95 at all stations. The temperature increased by approximately $0.23^{\circ}C$/decade during the study period and over $0.20^{\circ}C$/decade over all of the months. This increasing trend was observed throughout the Antarctica and a slight increase was observed in the Antarctic Peninsula. In addition, solar radiation (surface) and longwave radiation (surface and top of atmosphere) trends correlated with the increase in temperature. As a result, outgoing longwave radiation at the surface is attenuated by atmospheric water vapor or clouds and radiation at the top of the atmosphere was reduced. In addition, the absorbed energy in the atmosphere increases the temperature of the atmosphere and surface, and then the heated surface emits more longwave radiation. Eventually these processes are repeated in a positive feedback loop, which results in a continuous rise in temperature.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.275-286
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• 2012

Over the last 20 years there have been more than 3000 peer-reviewed papers relating to climate change and biodiversity published, and still the numbers are increasing. However, most studies focused on the impacts of climate change at population or community levels, and the results invariably reveal that there has been, or will be, a negative effect on the structure and pattern of biodiversity. Moreover, the climate change models and statistical analyses used to test the impacts are only newly developed, and the analyses or predictions can often be misled. In this review, I ask why an individual's life history is considered in the study how climate change affects biodiversity, and what ecological factors are impacted by climate change. Using evidence from a range of species, I demonstrate that diverse life history traits, such as early growth rate, migration/foraging behaviour and lifespan, can be shifted by climate change at individual level. Particularly I discuss that the optimal decision under unknown circumstance (climate change) would be the reduction of the ecological fitness at individual level, and hence, a shift in the balance of the ecosystem could be affected without having a critical impact on any one species. To conclude, I summarize the links between climate changes, ecological decision in life history, the revised consequence at individual level, and discuss how the finely-balanced relationship affects biodiversity and population structure.