South Korea's Hydrogen Drone to Monitor Arctic Glaciers at the Forefront of Climate Warming

Agreement Between South Korea and Denmark Leaders to Deploy Unmanned Vehicles for Polar Research

[AMP-W-1 drone of AMP Co., Ltd. (CEO Hwang Myung-su) observing the Russell Glacier in Greenland]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A small hydrogen unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by hydrogen powerhouse Korea has been deployed for research on Arctic glacier loss due to global warming.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) conducted flight tests for glacier observation in the Arctic (Greenland), Denmark, from the 10th to the 14th of this month. This is a follow-up measure to the agreement made during the Korea-Denmark summit in October 2018, where both countries agreed to cooperate on polar research using unmanned vehicles. The research is being carried out under KARI’s supervision as a joint study between the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), affiliated with the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, and DTU-Space, Denmark’s space development agency.

The project was conducted to observe the melting of glaciers in the polar region (Greenland), which is driving sea level rise due to global warming. It aims to develop quasi-wide-area observation and data analysis technologies to complement the limitations of existing satellite and small drone observation technologies, such as low resolution and very long revisit cycles.

Specifically, by utilizing meteorological measurement specialized drones, the project measures meteorological data above the glaciers (temperature, humidity, wind direction, and wind speed at various altitudes) to achieve integrated analysis of meteorological information above the glaciers that cannot be observed by satellites. To this end, KARI, KOPRI, and DTU-Space conducted observation flight tests over the Russel Glacier and surrounding areas near the Greenland airfield using three types of domestically developed small UAVs. This glacier is a continental glacier flowing westward from the Greenland ice sheet and is retreating 25 meters annually inland due to warming. Notably, two of the small UAVs (Youmaek Air and AMPI) were developed through the Ministry of Science and ICT’s 'Future Leading Core Technology Development Project for Unmanned Vehicles.'

[Russell Glacier photographed from 1.5km above by AMP's weather observation drone]

Analyses of polar environment UAV operation characteristics, glacier terrain mapping video acquisition, and navigation performance tests were conducted. This also serves to demonstrate the performance of domestic UAVs in extreme environments characterized by unstable magnetic fields, poor GPS signal reception, low temperatures, and strong winds.

KARI will continue climate change research, including observing glacier melting in Greenland, until next year based on the Ministry of Science and ICT’s research and development support project 'Strategic International Joint Research Project' and unmanned vehicle and related core technologies developed by the ministry. They also plan to test the performance of a hydrogen UAV currently under development.

The Remote Sensing Ice Information Center of the Polar Research Institute will analyze the Russel Glacier, including producing the first high-resolution elevation map of sea ice (sea ice surface) using UAVs. Kang Wang-gu, director of KARI, said, "Based on cooperation between the Polar Research Institute and domestic drone companies, we expect to secure challenging flight technologies for small domestic UAVs in polar environments and develop extreme UAV operation technologies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.