The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) said on the 4th that they selected Min Seung-gi, a professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology, as the February recipient of the Korea Science and Technology Award. He presented a new climate prediction outlook and determined that the timing of Arctic sea ice disappearance will be more than 10 years earlier than previous forecasts.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) said they chose Professor Min as the recipient for February, which includes International Polar Bear Day, in recognition of his work identifying the causes of extreme weather and offering future climate outlooks that provide scientific grounds for responding to the climate crisis.
Professor Min applied a future outlook correction method based on greenhouse gas radiative forcing to Arctic sea ice research, overcoming prior limitations. Using 41 years of satellite observations (three types) and climate model experiment data (10 types), he separated and analyzed the effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and natural forcing with a multiple linear regression method. As a result, Arctic sea ice decreased significantly in every month of the year, and it was confirmed that the main cause of the decline is the increase in greenhouse gases. Min compared the magnitude of the greenhouse gas effect detected in observations with that in climate models and reflected the difference in the outlook for future Arctic sea ice disappearance.
In the corrected future outlook, the timing of Arctic sea ice disappearance is moved up by more than 10 years compared with previous predictions and could appear as early as the 2030s. Min was the first to show that Arctic sea ice could disappear completely in the 2050s even under a low greenhouse gas emissions scenario, where sea ice had been expected to remain.
The Korea Science and Technology Award selects one researcher each month who has produced original research results over the past three years and made significant contributions to the development of science and technology, conferring the Minister of Science and ICT Award and prize money of 10 million won.
Min is a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report and a member of the International Detection and Attribution Group (IDAG), a global expert body that identifies the causes of climate change.
Min said, "We must seriously consider that the pace of global warming is accelerating faster than expected and that extreme weather events could intensify," and added, "I will steadfastly expand the role of science so we can prepare thoroughly for the climate crisis."