• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.677-686
• /
• 2014

Sea ice covers wide area in Terra Nova Bay in East Antarctica where the Jangbogo Antarctic Research Station was built in 2014, which affects greatly on the sailing of an icebreaker research vessel. In this study, we analyzed the optimum sea route and sailable period of the icebreaker to visit the Jangbogo Antarctic Research Station by using sea ice concentration data observed by passive microwave sensors such as Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) for the last decade, and by using sea route of the Araon, an icebreaker of Republic of Korea, from 2010 to 2012. It is found that Araon sailed in the route of sea ice concentration up to 78%. Sailing speed of the Araon decreased due to increasing sea ice concentration. However, Araon maintained the speed close to the average speed for the entire sailing period (~11 kn) in the route of sea ice concentration up to 70%. Therefore, we confirm that the Araon can sail typically in the route which shows sea ice concentration below 70%. We derived annually available sailing period in recent 10 years for the sea route of the Araon in 2010, 2011 and 2012, which is defined as the period showing sea ice concentration below 70% through the route. Maximum sailable period was analyzed to be 61 and 62 days for the route of the Araon in 2010 and 2011, respectively. However, the typical sailing in the routes was unavailable in some years because sea ice concentration was higher than 70% through the routes. Meanwhile, the sailable period for the routes of the Araon in 2012 was observed in every year, which was a minimum of 15 days and is a maximum of 89 days. Therefore, we could suggest that optimum route of icebreaker to visit the Jangbogo Antarctic Research Station is the route of the Araon in 2012. High resolution images from SAR or optical sensors are necessary to investigate sea ice condition near shoreline of Jangbogo research station due to several kilometers of low resolution of sea ice concentration.