Jang Bogo Station Research Articles

Persistent organic pollutants in the Antarctic marine environment: The influence impacts of human activity, regulations, and climate change

This study investigates the presence, distribution, and potential impacts of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) on the Antarctic marine environment. The analysis results from the King Sejong Station, the Jang Bogo Station, and Cape Evans revealed the highest concentrations of both PFASs and HBCDs at King Sejong Station, indicating the significant influence of human activity. Short-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) dominated the seawater samples, with PFPeA at the highest concentration (0.076 ng/L) at King Sejong Station, whereas perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSAs) were prevalent in the sediments, with PFHxS reaching 0.985 ng/g. Total PFASs in benthos ranged from N.D. to 2.40 ng/g ww across all stations. This indicated the effects of long-range transport and glacial meltwater. α-HBCD was the most common diastereomer in benthos samples, detected in 58.3% of samples, suggesting its selective persistency. Although risk quotient analysis revealed low immediate risks to lower-trophic organisms, potential risks remain owing to their persistence and bioaccumulation potential. Contaminant patterns changed after regulations: perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) levels decreased, unregulated PFASs increased, HBCD stereoisomer ratios shifted towards α-HBCD dominance, and overall HBCD concentrations declined. Widespread persistence of regulated substances was observed in Antarctic environments, highlighting the need for comprehensive and long-term monitoring strategies. This study provides essential baseline data on contaminant distributions across the Southern Ocean, contributing to our understanding of emerging pollutants in Antarctic regions and informing future environmental protection efforts.

HIWIND Balloon and Antarctica Jang Bogo FPI High Latitude Conjugate Thermospheric Wind Observations and Simulations

AbstractUsing the High attitude Interferometer WIND observation balloon and Antarctic Jang Bogo station high latitude conjugate observations of the thermospheric winds we investigate the seasonal and hemispheric differences between the northern and southern hemispheres in June 2018. We found that the summer (northern) hemisphere dayside meridional winds have a double‐hump feature, whereas in the winter (southern) hemisphere the dayside meridional winds have a single hump feature. We attribute that to stronger summer, perhaps, northern hemisphere cusp heating. We also compared the observation with NCAR Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIEGCM) model. The TIEGCM reproduced the double‐hump feature because of added cusp heating. The summer hemisphere has stronger anti‐sunward winds. This is the first time we have very high latitude conjugate thermospheric wind observations.

Assessment of Polar Ionospheric Observations by VIPIR/Dynasonde at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica: 2. Ionospheric Ion Drift Velocity

AbstractSince the installation at the Antarctic Jang Bogo Station (JBS) in 2017, Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) has been operating the Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar (VIPIR) equipped with Dynasonde analysis (JVD). The two‐dimensional ion velocity is one of the key ionospheric parameters obtained from the JVD. The ionospheric ion velocities are compared with simultaneous, but independent, measurements of the Doppler velocity obtained from SuperDARN East radar at Dome C. The JVD ion velocity vector is projected to the line‐of‐sight direction of the SuperDARN observation over the JBS to be directly compared with each other. The result of comparison shows a reasonable agreement with the correlation coefficient of 0.72. The linear regression coefficient of about 0.5 represents that the JVD ion velocity is generally smaller than the SuperDARN observations by the regression coefficient, which may result from the different height ranges of the measurements. It is also found that the correlation coefficient increases with increasing magnetic activity (Kp), which suggests that the small‐scale ionospheric density irregularities tend to move with large‐scale plasma motion that is driven by enhanced plasma convection with increasing Kp.

Dynasonde Observations of Ionospheric Polar Holes Under Quiet Geomagnetic Conditions at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica

AbstractNoticeable F‐region electron density (NmF2) depletions were observed in the winter‐nighttime polar cap ionosphere during solar minimum from the Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar (VIPIR) with Dynasonde analysis at Jang Bogo Station (JBS) in Antarctica. We focus on the F‐region density depletion events (known as polar holes) following a steady quiet condition that is defined with Kp values ≤ 1+ during 6 hr. Forty‐five polar holes were identified by JBS VIPIR/Dynasonde (JVD) in 2019. All of the events started over a wide range of nightside magnetic local time (22‐05 MLT) with a peak occurrence at 01–03 MLT. JVD measured exponential NmF2 decrease in the nightside MLT (∼19–2.5 hr) zone with e‐fold decay times distributed in the range of ∼0.5–∼3.5 hr before the onset of a polar hole. The e‐folding times decrease along the longitude from dusk toward midnight. The horizontal ion drift velocity (Vhor) estimated from JVD monotonically goes down from ∼190 m/s at 18 MLT to ∼100 m/s near magnetic midnight, and the NmF2 is depleted as Vhor decreases prior to the polar hole formation. The observations of the exponential NmF2 decrease and the positive correlation between NmF2 and Vhor prior to the polar holes are discussed in light of possible formation mechanisms of polar holes, including temporal variations and spatial structure of the polar ionosphere.

Length–weight relationships and condition factors of six notothenioid fish species occurring off King George Island and Northern Victoria Land (Antarctica)

This research was conducted to study length–weight relationships (LWR) and condition factors of six Antarctic notothenioidei fish species including blackfin icefish (Chaenocephalus aceratus), single-angle icefish (Chionodraco hamatus), marbled rockcod (Notothenia rossii), black rockcod (Notothenia coriiceps), emerald rockcod (Trematomus bernacchii), and dusky rockcod (Trematomus newnesi) from the King Sejong Station on King George Island and Jang Bogo Station on the Northern Victoria Land. A total of 232 specimens were collected by fishing on the icebreaking research vessel ARAON from December 2020 to February 2021. The LWR parameters and condition factors differed depending on species, which can be affected by their distribution, species characteristics, and gravidity status. The exponent b values in LWR (W = aLb) ranged from 2.593 to 5.184. Four species including C. aceratus, C. hamatus, N. rossii, and T. bernacchii followed positive allometric growth, T. newnesi followed negative allometric growth, and only N. coriiceps showed isometric growth. These results can be helpful in understanding the ecological and growth conditions of six fish species living in the Antarctic Ocean, providing more information for future research on Antarctic fish.

Hemispheric Asymmetry of the Polar Ionospheric Density Investigated by ESR and JVD Radar Observations and TIEGCM Simulations for the Solar Minimum Period

AbstractThe ionospheric density displays hemispheric asymmetries in the polar region due to various hemispheric differences, for example, in the offset between geographic and geomagnetic poles and in the geomagnetic field strength. Using ground‐based ionospheric measurements from Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar with Dynasonde analysis at Jang Bogo Station (JBS), Antarctica and from EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) where both sites are located mostly in the polar cap, we investigate the hemispheric differences in the ionospheric density between the northern and southern hemispheres for geomagnetically quiet and solar minimum condition. The results are also compared with Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic Global Circulation Model (TIEGCM) simulations. The observations show larger density and stronger diurnal and seasonal variations at JBS in the southern hemisphere than at Svalbard in the northern hemisphere. The diurnal variations of the density peak height are also observed to be much larger at JBS. In both hemispheres, the ionospheric density is significantly reduced in winter due to the limited solar production at high geographic latitudes, but TIEGCM considerably overestimates winter density, which is even larger than summer density, especially in the northern hemisphere. Also existed are the differences in the equinoctial asymmetry between the observations and the simulations: the daytime F‐region density is observed to be larger in fall than in spring in both hemispheres, but TIEGCM shows the opposite. In general, most of the observed asymmetrical density are much weaker in the model simulation, which may result from lack of proper magnetospheric forcings and neutral dynamics in the model.

Validations of satellite ozone profiles in austral spring using ozonesonde measurements in the Jang Bogo station, Antarctica

Using ozonesonde measurements from 2015 to 2018 at the Jang Bogo station located in the southeastern Antarctic region, we evaluate ozone profiles retrieved from the three satellite measurements that are widely used: Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), and Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS) data. For the fair validation, ozonesonde profiles are smoothed using the weighting function of each satellite retrieval algorithm (i.e., convolution process). Compared with limb-viewing MLS and OMPS ozone profiles, the OMI ozone profiles are relatively less qualified: coarser vertical resolution and larger inter-annual variation. Nevertheless, our validation reveals that the quality of all three satellite ozone profiles looks comparable; In general, difference from ozonesonde profile is ∼1 ppm absolutely, and −20 to 30% relatively at maximum. This quantitative range well corresponds to previous work, meaning that our new validation confirms the reliability of satellite ozone profiles in the southeastern Antarctic region where the measurement data for the validation were not enough. Another interesting feature is the role of a priori ozone profile; Nadir-viewing OMI satellite can have qualified ozone profiles by a proper assumption of a priori ozone profile. Since the performance of limb-viewing ozone profiles is better, however, the careful usage of nadir-viewing ozone profile is still required. We think that the simultaneous usage of multiple satellite ozone profiles can contribute to better understanding of Antarctic ozone characteristics.

Assessment of Polar Ionospheric Observations by VIPIR/Dynasonde at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica: Part 1—Ionospheric Densities

Vertical incidence pulsed ionospheric radar (VIPIR) has been operated to observe the polar ionosphere with Dynasonde analysis software at Jang Bogo Station (JBS), Antarctica, since 2017. The JBS-VIPIR-Dynasonde (JVD) provides ionospheric parameters such as the height profile of electron density with NmF2 and hmF2, the ion drift, and the ionospheric tilt in the bottomside ionosphere. The JBS (74.6°S, 164.2°E) is located in the polar cap, cusp, or auroral region depending on the geomagnetic activity and local time. In the present study, an initial assessment of JVD ionospheric densities is attempted by the comparison with GPS TEC measurements which are simultaneously obtained from the GPS receiver at JBS during the solar minimum period from 2017 to 2019. It is found that the JVD NmF2 and bottomside TEC (bTEC) show a generally good correlation with GPS TEC for geomagnetically quiet conditions. However, the bTEC seems to be less correlated with the GPS TEC with slightly larger spreads especially during the daytime and in summer, which seems to be associated with the characteristics of the polar ionosphere such as energetic particle precipitations and large density irregularities. It is also found that the Dynasonde analysis seems to show some limitations to handle these characteristics of the polar ionosphere and needs to be improved to produce more accurate ionospheric density profiles especially during disturbed conditions.

Disappearance of the Polar Cap Ionosphere During Geomagnetic Storm on 11 May 2019

AbstractMulti‐instrument data from Jang Bogo Station (JBS) in Antarctica were utilized to study ionospheric responses to the 11 May 2019 moderate geomagnetic storm. These include Vertical Incident Pulsed Ionospheric Radar (VIPIR)/Dynasonde, Fabry‐Perot Interferometer (FPI), GPS vertical total electron content (vTEC), and magnetometer. The VIPIR/Dynasonde observed long‐lasting (>11 hr) severe depletion of the electron density in the F‐region ionosphere over JBS. During the depletion interval, GPS TEC also correspondingly decreased, FPI neutral temperature was significantly enhanced, and the polar magnetic field variations showed positive and negative excursions in the Y (east) and Z (vertical) components, respectively. GK‐2 A satellite, located ∼2.5 hr west of JBS, observed negative magnetic field perturbations in the azimuthal BD component at geosynchronous orbit during the depletion of ionospheric plasma. Such a BD perturbation at geosynchronous orbit is due to the field‐aligned currents flowing out of the ionosphere. From these observations we suggest that transpolar ionospheric currents connected to the field‐aligned currents flowing on a substorm wedge‐shaped circuit act as a source of polar atmospheric heating during the moderate geomagnetic storm interval and that elevated heavy molecular gases (O2 and N2) by atmospheric heating contribute to the electron density depletion via increased recombination rate.

Infrasound Signals in Coastal Environment at Jang Bogo Station, Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica

Infrasound signals in Antarctica reflect physical interaction in the surface environments around the recorded area. In December 2015, an infrasound array by three sensors in the detectable frequency range of 0.1 - 200 Hz, combined with one broadband barometer was deployed at Jang Bogo Station, Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. The two years of data by the broadband barometer contain characteristic signals that caused by surface environment nearby the station, mixing with local noises such as katabatic winds. Clear continuous signals by oceanic swells (microbaroms) were recorded with a predominant frequency of around 0.2 s. Variations of frequency context and amplitudes in the Power Spectral Density were considered as affected by sea-ice dynamics surrounding the Terra Nova Bay. Monitoring of microbaroms could contribute to understanding ocean wave climate, with other oceanographic, cryospheric and geophysical data in Antarctica. Infrasound data in Terra Nova Bay might be a new proxy for estimating environmental variations affected by global warming, cryosphere dynamics, together with volcanic eruptions in Victoria Land.

Observations of the Aurora by Visible All-Sky Camera at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica

The auroral observation has been started at Jang Bogo Station (JBS), Antarctica by using a visible All-sky camera (v-ASC) in 2018 to routinely monitor the aurora in association with the simultaneous observations of the ionosphere, thermosphere and magnetosphere at the station. In this article, the auroral observations are introduced with the analysis procedure to recognize the aurora from the v-ASC image data and to compute the auroral occurrences and the initial results on their spatial and temporal distributions are presented. The auroral occurrences are mostly confined to the northern horizon in the evening sector and extend to the zenith from the northwest to cover almost the entire sky disk over JBS at around 08 MLT (magnetic local time; 03 LT) and then retract to the northeast in the morning sector. At near the magnetic local noon, the occurrences are horizontally distributed in the northern sky disk, which shows the auroral occurrences in the cusp region. The results of the auroral occurrences indicate that JBS is located most of the time in the polar cap near the poleward boundary of the auroral oval in the nightside and approaches closer to the oval in the morning sector. At around 08 MLT (03 LT), JBS is located within the auroral oval and then moves away from it, finally being located in the cusp region at the magnetic local noon, which indicates that the location of JBS turns out to be ideal to investigate the variabilities of the poleward boundary of the auroral oval from long-term observations of the auroral occurrences. The future plan for the ground auroral observations near JBS is presented.

Inferring the Horizontal Speed of an Ionospheric Irregularity From a Single GPS Scintillation Receiver at High Latitudes

AbstractWe propose a new technique to infer the horizontal speed of ionospheric irregularity at high latitudes from the refractive components of the global positioning system (GPS) L1 (1575.42 MHz) and L2 (1227.60 MHz) carrier phases using only a single ground‐based receiver that can log measurements at 50–100 Hz. The test data at Jang Bogo Station (geographic: 74.6°S and 164.2°E; geomagnetic: 77.2°S) in Antarctica and at Sachs Harbor (geographic: 71.9°N and 234.7°E; geomagnetic: 75.6°N) in the Arctic were analyzed for a one‐year period in 2019. The results were compared with data from ground‐based radar observations, the Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar (VIPIR) in Antarctica and the Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI) in the Arctic, which measures the ion drift velocity at the apex. Although it is difficult to directly compare GPS and radar measurements due to the steep gradient of fast plasma motion in narrow regions at high latitudes, the probability density of the ionospheric irregularity speeds from the two different instruments were consistent with the correlation coefficients of 0.81 and 0.85 in the Southern and Northern hemispheres.

Characterization of Turbulence in the Neutral and Stable Surface Layer at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica

The availability of 5-year time series of velocity and temperature data from two sonic anemometers installed at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica, allowed a systematic investigation of the turbulence features in a stable layer affected by submeso motions and characterized by the vertical divergence of some second-order moments for a large fraction of time (quite a non-ideal surface layer). The investigation of the effect of the averaging time interval on the statistics of the second-order moments showed that this is greater for the variances of the velocity components with respect to that for the vertical fluxes. This corresponds to a greater contribution from low-frequency motions. The turbulence statistics were investigated and compared with current literature results in terms of vertical structure, share of energy between horizontal and vertical components, skewness of the vertical velocity and turbulent velocities. As a general result, all the normalized second-order moments show a clear change passing from neutral to stable conditions, passing through the range of bulk Richardson number equal to 0.1–1.

Seasonal Variations in the Biochemical Compositions of Phytoplankton and Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEPs) at Jang Bogo Station (Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea), 2017–2018

The biochemical composition of particulate organic matter (POM) mainly originates from phytoplankton. Transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) depend on environmental conditions and play a role in the food web and biogeochemical cycle in marine ecosystems. However, little information on their characteristics in the Southern Ocean is available, particularly in winter. To investigate the seasonal characteristics of POM and TEPSs, seawater samples were collected once every two weeks from November 2017 to October 2018 at Jang Bogo Station (JBS) located on the coast of Terra Nova Bay in the Ross Sea. The total chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations increased from spring (0.08 ± 0.06 μg L−1) to summer (0.97 ± 0.95 μg L−1) with a highest Chl-a value of 2.15 μg L−1. After sea ice formation, Chl-a rapidly decreased in autumn (0.12 ± 0.10 μg L−1) and winter (0.01 ± 0.01 μg L−1). The low phytoplankton Chl-a measured in this study was related to a short ice-free period in summer. Strong seasonal variations were detected in the concentrations of proteins and lipids (one-way ANOVA test, p < 0.05), whereas no significant difference in carbohydrate concentrations was observed among different seasons (one-way ANOVA test, p > 0.05). The phytoplankton community was mostly composed of diatoms (88.8% ± 11.6%) with a large accumulation of lipids. During the summer, the POM primarily consisted of proteins. The composition being high in lipids and proteins and the high caloric content in summer indicated that the phytoplankton would make a good food source. In winter, the concentrations of proteins decreased sharply. In contrast, relatively stable concentrations of carbohydrates and lipids have been utilized for respiration and long-term energy storage in the survival of phytoplankton. The TEPS values were significantly correlated with variations in the biomass and species of the phytoplankton. Our study site was characterized by dominant diatoms and low Chl-a concentrations, which could have resulted in relatively low TEP concentrations compared to other areas. The average contributions of TEP-C to the total POC were relatively high in autumn (26.9% ± 6.1%), followed by those in summer (21.9% ± 7.1%), winter (13.0% ± 4.2%), and spring (9.8% ± 3.1%).

Gravity observations at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica, and scale factor calibrations of different relative gravimeters

We conducted gravity observations in Antarctica at Jang Bogo Station (JBS) during the 2019–2020 Austral summer season using an FG5-210 absolute gravimeter (AG) and a LaCoste & Romberg (LCR) Model D-58 relative gravimeter. Absolute gravity measurements were successfully made at reference gravity point JBSAG1 and newly established gravity point JBSAG2, yielding about 19,000 and 14,400 drops of data, respectively, with measurement precisions better than 0.4 μGal (1 μGal = 10−8 m s−2). In addition, relative gravity measurements were conducted at 10 other newly established gravity points, with accuracies better than 10 μGal, to supplement the absolute gravity data. Superconducting gravimeter (SG) observation with an iGrav-021 instrument has been underway at JBS since 2016. Since an SG is a relative gravimeter, the calibration of the scale factor is essential for long-term gravity monitoring. In addition, the D-58 instrument was required for scale factor calibration. To calibrate the scale factors of these gravimeters, we first estimated a value for the iGrav-021 using parallel observations with the FG5-210 instrument. The D-58 scale factor was then estimated indirectly from parallel observations with the iGrav-021. These calibrations should ensure accurate gravity monitoring in future work.

Development of Predictive Model for Radon-222 Estimation in the Atmosphere using Stepwise Regression and Grid Search Based-Random Forest Regression

This work develops predictive models for estimating radon (222Rn) activity concentration in the atmosphere using novel grid search based random forest regression (GS-RFR) and stepwise regression (SWR). The developed models employ meteorological parameters which include the temperature, pressure, relative and absolute humidity, wind speed and wind direction as descriptors. Experimental data of radon concentration and meteorological parameters from two observatories of the Korea Polar Research Institute in Antarctica (King Sejong and Jang Bogo) have been employed in this work. The performance of the developed models was assessed using three different performance measuring parameters. On the basis of root mean square error (RMSE), the GS-RFR shows better performance over the SWR. An improvement of 64.09 % and 15.19 % was obtained on the training and test datasets, respectively at King Sejong station. At the Jang Bogo station, an improvement of 75.04 % and 28.04 % was obtained on the training and test datasets, respectively. The precision and robustness of the developed models would be of significant interest in determining the concentration of radon (222Rn) activity concentration in the atmosphere for various physical applications especially in regions where field measuring equipment for radon is not available or measurements have been interrupted.

Seasonality of isotopic and chemical composition of snowpack in the vicinity of Jang Bogo Station, East Antarctica

Seasonality of isotopic and chemical composition of snowpack in the vicinity of Jang Bogo Station, East Antarctica

Monthly Variation in the Macromolecular Composition of Phytoplankton Communities at Jang Bogo Station, Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea.

Organic carbon fixed by photosynthesis of phytoplankton during the polar growing period could be important for their survival and consumers during the long polar night. Differences in biochemical traits of phytoplankton between ice-free and polar night periods were investigated in biweekly water samples obtained at the Korean “Jang Bogo Station” located in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. The average concentration of total Chl-a from phytoplankton dominated by micro-sized species from the entire sampling period was 0.32 μg L–1 (SD = ± 0.88 μg L–1), with the highest concentration of 4.29 μg L–1 in February and the lowest concentration of 0.01 μg L–1 during the ice-covered polar night (April–October) in 2015. The highest protein concentration coincided with the peak Chl-a concentration in February and decreased rapidly relative to the carbohydrate and lipid concentrations in the early part of polar night. Among the different biochemical components, carbohydrates were the predominant constituent, accounting for 69% (SD = ± 14%) of the total particulate organic matter (POM) during the entire study period. The carbohydrate contributions to the total POM markedly increased from 39 ± 8% during the ice-free period to 73 ± 9% during the polar night period. In comparison, while we found a significant negative correlation (r2 = 0.92, p < 0.01) between protein contributions and carbohydrate contributions, lipid contributions did not show any particular trend with relatively small temporal variations during the entire observation period. The substantial decrease in the average weight ratio of proteins to carbohydrates from the ice-free period (mean ± SD = 1.0 ± 0.3) to the ice-covered period (mean ± SD = 0.1 ± 0.1) indicates a preferential loss of nitrogen-based proteins compared to carbohydrates during the polar night period. Overall, the average food material (FM) concentration and calorific contents of FM in this study were within the range reported previously from the Southern Ocean. The results from this study may serve as important background data for long-term monitoring of the regional and interannual variations in the physiological state and biochemical compositions of phytoplankton resulting from future climate change in Antarctica.

빙하 크레바스 탐지용 무인지상차량 (UGV) 개발

Research activities in Antarctica face a number of risk factors, such as cold, strong winds, and isolated or dangerous environments. Among them, crevasses, which are deep cracks in glaciers, can cause fatal accidents since they are difficult to locate as they are covered with snow. In this paper, we present the development, design, and deployment of an UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) that can explore ice-sheets and be used in various polar research fields. The developed UGV was customized to remotely detect crevasses and prevent related accidents. In order to adapt to the harsh terrain of Antarctica, the vehicle features ground clearance over 260 mm, four-wheel-drive ability with a 400W high-power motor, as well as passive joints and differential links to allow for four-point contact on rough terrain. The UGV is also designed to run for more than two hours on the Antarctic ice sheet at a speed of 2.5 m/sec. The control unit uses open-source hardware and software for rapid function implementation and ease of future customization. In November 2019, the UGV detected crevasses successfully by towing an IPR (Ice Penetrating Radar) along the 2.6 km section of the Browning Pass around Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica. Further improvement is required for heading angle errors due to magnetic compass malfunctions in Antarctica, and for the vibration and misalignment of the traction device for the towing research equipment.

Characteristics of Ionospheric Irregularities Using GNSS Scintillation Indices Measured at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica (74.62°S, 164.22°E)

AbstractGlobal Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals strongly depend on the ionospheric conditions, which are composed of electrons and ions generated by solar radiation and particle precipitation. Ionospheric plasma irregularities may cause the scintillation of the GNSS signals or even the loss of signal lock, resulting in the reduction of positioning accuracy and timing precision. Phase scintillation phenomenon is known to occur frequently at high latitudes and primarily related to a significant plasma density gradient, which is due to fast plasma flows in the polar region, energetic particle precipitation in the auroral region, polar cap patches, or several instability mechanisms. Statistical studies are required to understand the characteristics of ionospheric (both phase and amplitude) scintillations at high latitudes. Here, we report the results of ionospheric scintillation measurements at Jang Bogo Station (JBS; 74.62°S, 164.22°E), located inside the polar cap region in Antarctica. The occurrence rates of ionospheric scintillations over the JBS are recorded for 2 years (2017–2018) during solar minimum conditions. The occurrence rates of amplitude scintillations increase only at lower elevation angles (below 30°), which are hard to determine whether the source is ionospheric irregularity or ambient noise such as multipath. In contrast, the occurrence rates of phase scintillations depend on the azimuth angle, season, magnetic activity, magnetic local time, and signal frequency. The results of our analysis suggest that users of the GNSS should consider these parameters to prepare for the degradation of the GNSS performance at high latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.