ANTARCTIC ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION 
minima there, and certainly none for the anomalous 
post-midnight diurnal temperature maximum of clear 
days during winter at various coastal stations. 
As to specific situations, it is suggested that 1912 was 
a year of low zonal index with stronger-than-usual 
meridional exchange, so that there were abnormally 
strong south gales at Mawson’s ““Home of the Blizzard” 
in Adélie Land, in the path of one of the preferred out- 
flow paths. Simpson [113] long ago suggested that 
February and March, 1912, were unusually cold on the 
Ross Shelf Ice, imposing unexpected hardships which 
proved fatal to Scott and his party returning from the 
pole, and Kidson [75] pointed out that “1912 was the 
windiest year experienced in McMurdo Sound.” Con- 
versely, the summer of 1908-9, when David found 
rather variable winds near the magnetic pole, may 
have been a period of reduced outflow. 
Obviously, the variations in hemispheric circulation 
patterns which are considered to be reflected in the 
pressure and circulation distributions of Antarctica are 
intimately related to the variations in the amount of 
ice in the subantarctic seas. Coasts accessible by ship 
im some years are completely ice-jammed in others; 
some ships entering the Ross Sea have fought hundreds 
of miles of ice, others at the same time of year have 
found no pack ice at all, as shown in English’s [122] 
exhaustive tabulation. The relation between the hem- 
ispheric circulation and sea-ice conditions is a complex 
problem, but one of the most important in Antarctica’s 
meteorology. 
Prospects. For the first time im history, prospects are 
bright that a good understanding of Antarctica’s at- 
mospherie circulation, and thus its climate, can be 
achieved in the near future. Two well-equipped expedi- 
tions have established bases on the coast south of the 
string of full-scale weather stations on subantarctic 
islands (Marion, Kerguelen, Heard, Macquarie, Camp- 
bell), and the British, Chilean, and Argentine stations 
in and around Palmer Peninsula are continuing (al- 
though the southernmost, in Marguerite Bay, was aban- 
doned by air in February 1950 because ice conditions 
made it imaccessible by sea for two consecutive 
summers). 
These, however, are still coastal stations. Sorely 
needed are a few year-round stations well in the in- 
terior of the continent, located for example along 80°S 
at 0°, 90°E, and 90°W; occupation of the South Pole 
itself, while spectacular, would be of less meteorological 
benefit than a single station at the world’s “pole of in- 
accessibility,” around 80°S, 80°E. Such stations, op- 
erating simultaneously with those active during 1950, 
and making radiosonde flights (and rawin flights if pos- 
sible) at least twice weekly, would finally provide 
enough information on the seasonal changes in Antarc- 
tica’s atmosphere to permit the circulation to be estab- 
lished definitely—and to permit a full solution of the 
puzzle of the pressure waves. 
Meanwhile, there are several problems which require 
study. Ozone concentrations must be measured through- 
out the year at several places, and air samples should 
937 
be procured weekly at antarctic bases, for later labora- 
tory analysis, until the apparent oxygen deficiency is 
established or disproved. Pressure surges (not waves) 
can be sought in the more recent data (the 1935 prob- 
lem has already been cited) to determine whether any 
benefits to forecasting can be obtained, such as the cor- 
relation cited by Diaz [28] that “polar air invasions 
over Argentina are preceded by ...a barometric max- 
imum over Antarctica (South Orkneys and Little Amer- 
ica) from 6 to 5 days before.” The anomalous post- 
midnight maximum of temperature on clear winter 
days requires explanation; unfortunately, clockwork 
deficiencies precluded a thermograph record during the 
1940 winter at Little America, so that as yet there are 
no examples of this anomaly with simultaneous radio- 
sonde observations. 
Of course, further exploration of the continent is 
needed, since the meteorologist must know the nature 
of the land (or ice) surface in order to understand the 
weather processes above it. However, merely flying 
over the interior in a camera-equipped airplane will not 
give adequate information: the elevation is important, 
and to obtain it with sufficient accuracy requires ground 
surveys. As long as the basic circulation is uncertain, 
elevations cannot be determined by pressure altimeters 
hundreds of miles from the nearest barometer of known 
height or from the nearest ocean. 
Expeditions which do go to Antarctica should have 
meteorologists not only competent to obtain the needed 
observations under adverse conditions, but meteorolo- 
gists who understand the problems which they are to 
help solve. ‘It is not enough to give a man an instru- 
ment and then send him to some outlandish place to 
expose that instrument and take readings,” said Sir 
George Simpson. He must know what he is doing, how 
others did it before, and above all why he is doing it 
and the significance of the results. Yet too many expedi- 
tion meteorologists have been chosen more for availa- 
bility than for ability, more for backpacking than for 
background, more for eagerness than for erudition. 
Finally, the problems of Antarctica’s meteorology 
cannot be solved in Antarctica. Observations must be 
made there, both by accurate instrument and by under- 
standing eye, but they must be published quickly and 
in full detail and then synthesized and interpreted in 
the calm of office and library. An expedition cannot be 
termed scientific if it does not provide its meteorologists 
(and other scientists as well) as much time for study of 
the results, after the expedition, as was spent on the 
entire trip itself, and under the most favorable condi- 
tions for study; arrangements for prompt publication 
must also be made. Only through such prior commit- 
ments can any expedition hope to help materially in 
dispelling the present uncertainty concerning the cli- 
mate and atmospheric circulation of Antarctica. 
REFERENCES 
In the past twenty years, more than one hundred books, 
articles, and notes concerning antarctic meteorology have 
been published. The most important of these are listed in 
