THE FIXED GLACIAL ANTICYCLONE COMPARED TO 

 THE MIGRATING ANTICYCLONE. 



By WILLIAM HERBERT HOBBS. 

 (Read April 24, 1920.) 



The discussion upon the " General Air Circulation over the 

 Antarctic " contained in Dr. Simpson's final report upon the meteor- 

 ological observations made in connection with Captain Scott's last 

 expedition/ is devoted especially to my theory of the glacial anti- 

 cyclone and the opposite conception of the glacial cyclone as set 

 forth by Meinardus, the meteorologist of the German South-Pole 

 Expedition. Simpson's summing up of his conclusions is, however, 

 a trifle difficult to evaluate, for he says : 



" On considering the whole of Hobbs' paper one cannot help feeling that 

 in spite of his failing to explain the origin of the precipitation and the 

 mechanism of blizzards he has made out a very strong case for the existence 

 of an anticyclone over all extensive masses of inland ice and over the Ant- 

 arctic in particular. Therefore one would be inclined to agree with the 

 generally accepted idea that there is an intense anticyclone concentric with 

 the Pole and covering the whole of the Antarctic Continent. 



" On the other hand, however, Meinardus in his discussion of the results 

 of the Gauss Expedition attacks the theory of the Antarctic anticyclone with 

 great vigour and one must admit with most convincing success.- We will 

 therefore now examine the problem from Meinardus' point of view." 



From these paragraphs one is unable to decide whether Dr. 

 Simpson favors the one or the other theory. The following cita- 

 tions from his monograph will indicate that he has failed to grasp 

 the fundamental physical fact which is the raison d'etre of the anti- 

 cyclone, namely, the domed surface of the continental glacier : 



" Hobbs . . . contends that an anticyclone exists over every extensive 

 snow-covered land and takes the Antarctic and Greenland as the two most 



^ George C. Simpson, D.Sc, P\R.S., Meteorology, British Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition 1910-1913, Vol. I, discussion (pp. 326, pis. 5) and Vol. 2, Weather 

 Maps, Calcutta, 1919. 



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