POLAR YEAR EXPEDITION — STAGG 115 



minding the Indians of the value we put on the recovery of the 

 instruments. 



When we went out to Canada we were not sanguine of retrieving 

 any of the meteorographs, but we hoped for two ; and, alas, two only 

 we got. Both of these were from balloons released in winter condi- 

 tions when the air temperature was about —30° C, and both the 

 records are fortunately very good. They show that in both ascents 

 the instruments attained heights of approximately 16 kilometers, 

 passing through a well-marked tropopause at 8.5 kilometers with a 

 temperature about —60° C. 



Since the meteorograph records are engraved on silvered plates 

 which do not perish for many years, and since, too, the uncontami- 

 nated nature of the atmosphere in that part of Canada will help 

 preserve them, there is always the chance that the remainder of our 

 meteorographs which fell into the bush will yet be discovered and 

 forwarded to us. 



During the 13 calendar months of the Polar Year that ended on 

 August 31, 1933, we continued complete meteorological observations 

 according to the International Code every 3 hours, and during most 

 months of that year observations of cloud every hour. The object 

 in maintaining complete records and observations of all the meteoro- 

 logical elements was much less to collect data for the making of 

 climatological averages than to be able to supply detailed informa- 

 tion about the weather and conditions in the atmosphere at any time. 

 This, along with similar information from other cooperating sta- 

 tions, would allow the general meteorological situation over wide 

 areas to be reconstructed and investigated synoptically. The sum- 

 mary of our temperature records is, however, of general interest. 

 This confirms our experience that the winter of 1932-33 at Fort Rae 

 was characterized less by extremes of low temperature reached than 

 by the protracted steadiness of the cold. The mean temperature for 

 the 7 months ending April 30 was —20° C, the contributions to this 

 mean from January and February being both about —31° C. On 

 individual days the lowest mean was —40° C. Day temperatures 

 during the short summer comprising the latter part of July and 

 August not infrequently rose to 20° C. Over the 12 months ending 

 September 30, 1933, the mean temperature at Kae was —7.3° C. com- 

 pared with —6.2° C. for the corresponding period at the old Fort 

 Rae station in the first polar year 50 years ago. 



Observations in atmospheric electricity formed one of the other 

 mainsubdivisions of our program of work, and these Mr. Sheppard 

 had in his particular care. For the maintenance of continuous rec- 

 ords of atmospheric potential gradient we used a Benndorf electro- 

 graph and a polonium collector. To make up for the rather quick 



111666—35 9 



