Korea has successfully explored a 3,500-meter-thick glacier in Antarctica using a radar technology it spearheaded. This is highly significant as it provides key data for climate change research, as glaciers hold records of past climates.
The Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) announced on the 5th that a research team led by Dr. Lee Ju-han, in collaboration with the University of Alabama, used a co-developed deep ice-penetrating radar late last year to explore a glacier with an average thickness of 3,000 meters in the Dome C region of inland Antarctica. The Dome C region, located about 1,300 km from the coastal Jang Bogo Station, is known to have some of the thickest ice in Antarctica.
The radar used by the team, which is attached to a light aircraft, was developed by KOPRI over a four-year period starting in 2018. This system expands the exploration radius to 1,500 km—more than six times that of a helicopter—and allows for precise analysis of ice up to 4,000 meters thick. In this latest survey, the team covered a total distance of 2,800 km and confirmed an average ice thickness of 3,000 meters. Some areas featured glaciers exceeding 3,500 meters in thickness, which are estimated to contain atmospheric information from at least 1.5 million years ago.
The exploration yielded visual data that confirmed not only the ice layers but also the underlying structure of the Antarctic continent and the presence of subglacial lakes. KOPRI will now analyze and supplement the data and conduct surveys over the next three years to select candidate sites for deep ice core drilling.
“Antarctic ice is Earth’s historical archive, containing the most detailed records of past climates,” said Dr. Lee Ju-han, Head of the Future Technology Center at KOPRI. “This exploration signifies a smooth start for our country's journey to respond to climate change.”
