Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment finds satellite can track forests

The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said that imagery from a homegrown radar satellite could enable continuous monitoring of forest changes in national parks, including areas obscured by cloud or fog.

The National Park Service's research institute used repeated data collected between March 12 and Sept. 20, 2025, from Next-Generation Small Satellite 2 to make time-series images and map the locations and patterns of forest-change signals in Jirisan National Park. It found that deciduous and planted forests produced different radar backscatter signals. The findings could help distinguish forest types and flag suspected damage.

Repeated observations could also be used to identify forest decline, pest damage, fire damage and recovery, landslide-risk areas and land-use changes at an early stage, the ministry said.

The ministry said national-park forests are sensitive to climate change, and subalpine conifers such as Korean fir are vulnerable to rising temperatures, drought and heavy rain. It said long-term monitoring that links satellite data with field surveys is needed to investigate the causes of their decline.

Joo Dae-young, chairman of the National Park Service, called the satellite data "an important means of looking more frequently at changes across broad national-park forests." He added that the agency would combine satellite, drone and field-survey data to identify vulnerable forest ecosystems and disaster risks early and strengthen the scientific basis for disaster response, conservation and restoration policies.