• 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.37 no.2
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• pp.141-147
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• 2015

Snow albedo can be decreased if there are any impurities on the snow surface other than the snow itself. Due to the decrease of snow albedo, melting rates of surface snow can increase, which is very crucial in climate change and hydrogeology in many parts of the world. Anthropogenic black carbons caused by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel affect snow and tephra particles generated by geologic volcanic activities reduce snow albedo. In this study, we investigated isotopic compositions for snow covered by tephra particles and compared with this with clean snow. Isotopic compositions of snow with tephra statistically show more enriched than those of clean snow (p<0.02). This can be explained by the fact that snow becomes enriched in $^{18}O$ or D relative to meltwater as melting rates are increased. In addition, the slopes of the linear regression between oxygen and hydrogen for snow with tephra and clean snow are 6.7 and 8, respectively, and the latter is similar to that of the global meteoric water line of 8. Therefore, we can conclude that snow impurities control the isotopic compositions of snow, which is very crucial in the study of climate change and hydrogeology. To quantitatively explain these observations, melting experiments and numerical approaches are required.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.233-250
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• 2019

A re-assessment of the age structure of the population of the Antarctic icefish Pseudochaenichthys georgianus based on body length data covering the years 1976-2009 and including larvae and postlarvae collected in 1989 and 1990 allowed us to define age groups 0, I, and II as containing fish with respective body lengths of 6-9 cm, 15-27 cm and 27-39 cm. Age at maturity (first spawning) was found to occur in age group III at body lengths that have been falling from 50.1 cm in 1979 to 45.4 cm in 1992. Considering postlarvae together with adult fish, the v. Bertalanffy growth curve parameters were determined as L_∞ = 60.62 cm, k = 0.4, t₀ = 0.25. Although the reasons for a maturity at shorter body lengths is not fully understood a host of environmental factors like increasing water temperatures and possibly changes in currents, interspecific competition, food availability, etc. are likely to be involved. Global warming (and not primarily overfishing) is likely to have been responsible for the disappearance of larger fish in the surface waters of South Georgia since 1977, for virtually all commercial fishing stopped in the early 1990s. On the other hand, the appearance of numerous younger spawning individuals suggests that larvae do survive in the colder deeper water below 200 m. The biomass of Ps. georgianus oscillates with a 4-year periodicity in contrast to that of the coexisting icefish Chaenocephalus aceratus: the former with a lower biomass in warm years and a higher one in cold years. The biomass of the third species of icefish in the region, i.e. Champsocephalus gunnari, also oscillates, but with a longer periodicity than that involved in the biology of the other two and its biomass increases in contrast to the other two species. The result is that the biomass all three species considered together is rather stable.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.501-511
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• 2015

This study suggests a method of alleviating global warming by the increase of the Earth surface albedo through Artificial Sea ice Increasing (ASI) over the Available Freezing Areas (AFA). The method is developed based on the fact that the large sea surface area in or near the Arctic and the Antarctic has no ice even though both water and air temperatures are below zero and the artificial sea ice generation is thus available. The mean energy of $0.85Wm^{-2}$, which was suspected of adding to the earth by the global warming effect was calculated to offset at once when the sea ice area about $4.09{\times}10^6km^2$ was additionally increased. In addition, three techniques for producing ice plates on the sea surface (using ships, installation apparatus, and floating matter such as Green Cell Foam) for ASI were proposed. According to the result of simple analysis using the energy balance model, when ASI was maximally operated only for 3 months (September, October, and November) over AFA, it is expected that the annual mean temperature of earth surface would be decreased about $0.11^{\circ}C$ in the following year. On the other hand, in case of generating the artificial sea ice in all four seasons, a risk of triggering snowball earth was detected.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.24-31
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• 2007

Global fates of polychlorinated biphenyl(PCB) were investigated with a fugacity based multimedia transport and fate model, Globe-POP(persistent organic pollutant). The accumulation of PCB was directly affected by the emission patterns of PCB into the atmosphere and surface areas of environmental compartments. Partition coefficients and reaction rates also influenced on the accumulation patterns of PCB. The emission patterns of PCB in 10 climate zones were consistent for the past 70 years, while the contribution of PCB in high-latitude zones to the globe has increased by cold condensation. Considering the amounts of emission and accumulation of PCB, the North temperature zone is regarded as an important source and sink of PCB. Meanwhile, in spite of no significant sources, POPs accumulate in Antarctic environments mainly due to extremely low temperature. Finally we suggested that a global water balance accounting for snow/ice should be incorporated into multimedia environmental models for high-latitude zones and polar regions with the seasonal snow pack and/or permanent ice caps. The modified model will be useful to evaluate the influence of climate change on the fate of POPs.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.557-567
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• 2003

High-resolution (3.5 kHz) subbottom profiles were analyzed in order to reveal sedimentation pattern of late Quaternary in the northern South Shetland continental margin and the South Scotia Sea, Antarctica. On the basis of clarity, continuity and geometry of surface and subbottom echoes together with seafloor topography, high-resolution echo characters are classified into eight echo types which represent rock basements (echo type III-1), coarse-grained subglacial till or moraine (echo type I-1), slides/slumps (echo type IV), debris-flow deposits (echo types II-3 and III-2), and bottom-current deposits (echo types I-2, II-1 and II-2). Subglacial till or moraine (echo type I-1) is mostly present in the lower continental shelf and upper continental slope of the northern South Shetland continental margin, which changes downslope to slides/slumps (echo type IV) and debris-flow deposits (echo types II-3 and III-2) in the middle to lower continental slope. This distribution suggests that the continental slopes of the northern South Shetland continental margin were mostly affected by downslope gravitational processes. Further downslope, bottom-current sediments (echo type I-2) deposited by the southwestward flowing Antarctic Deep Water (ADW) occur at the South Shetland Trench, reflecting an Interaction between mass flows and bottom currents in the area. In contrast to the northern South Shetland continental margin, the South Scotia Sea is dominated by bottom-current deposits (echo types II-1 and II-2), indicating that the sedimentation was mostly controlled by the westward flowing ADW. Flow intensity of the ADW has increased in the relative topographic highs, forming thin covers of coarse-grained contourites (echo type II-1), whereas it has decreased in the relative topographic lows, depositing thick, fine-grained contourites (echo type II-2). The poor development of wave geometry in the fine-grained bottom-current deposits (echo type II-2) is suggestive of the unsteady nature of the ADW flow.