SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



85 



SUMMER AT THE NORTH POLE. 



By Dr. N. Ekholm.* 



"\ 1 HTH regard to the projected voyage of Mr. 

 Chief Engineer Andree, of the Swedish 

 Patent Office, to the North Pole in a balloon, the 

 opinion has been expressed that such an under- 

 taking would encounter insurmountable difficulties. 

 For instance, some persons seem to think that in 

 the lower strata of the Polar atmosphere all winds 

 blow towards the Pole ; therefore the atmosphere 

 would there ascend and, at a great height, flow 

 southwards, and as the projected aerial voyage 

 would be performed at a mean height of about 250 

 metres, (that is, in the lower strata of the air), 

 Andree and his companions, of whom I shall be 

 one, would reach the Pole, but not be able to get 

 away. Even more curious ideas have been 

 broached, and these have caused the writer, as a 

 member of various Arctic expeditions, to examine 

 into the wind temperature and cloud conditions 

 around the Pole during summer, the results of 

 which are presented in this paper. 



The Wind Conditions. 



During the month of July a high atmospheric 

 pressure lies over the Central Atlantic Ocean and 

 Central Europe, whereby westerly winds mostly 

 prevail between America and England and North 

 Germany. A corresponding high pressure is 

 situated over the northern part of the Pacific 

 Ocean, accompanied by south-westerly winds in its 

 northern part. Quite the reverse are the conditions 

 over the highly-heated continents. Over these there 

 lie great minima, accompanied by north-easterly 

 wind over Siberia, which changes to north-westerly 

 in the northern part of European Russia. In British 

 North America the minimum is divided into several 

 minor pressures, but still northerly winds are the 

 prevailing. North of the central Atlantic maxi- 

 mum th'ere are situated some smaller minima over 

 Scandinavia, south of Iceland and Baffin's Bay. 

 North of these are the regions which interest us 

 more especially, and which are but little explored. 



By the aid of the barometer and wind observa- 

 tions made at various Polar stations, particularly 

 those at Fort Conger (the Greely expedition). 

 Cape Thordsen (the Swedish expedition of 1882-S3), 

 and Franz Josef's Land (the Austrian expedition, 

 under Pazan), we are able to form an idea of the 

 weather conditions around the Pole — an idea 

 which, I beheve, approaches very near reality. 



The meteorologists Haun and Buchan have 

 drawn charts of the atmospheric conditions at the 



* Chief of the Royal Swedish Meteorological Office, and 

 companion of Herr Andree in the present attempt to make a 

 balloon voyage to the North Pole. 



September, 1896. — No. 28, Vol. 3. ] 



North Pole, and they come to the conclusion that 

 a vast but weak barometrical maximum extends 

 away from the Pole on all sides. But in framing 

 these charts all the material at our disposal has 

 not been utilised. The writer has from the same, 

 supported by the wind observations made at Fort 

 Conger and Spitzbergen, come to the conclusion 

 that the great Polar maximum of Haun and 

 Buchan shall be separated into three parts, one 

 situated south of Spitzbergen, one over the inland 

 ice of Greenland and one over Northern .\laska. 

 Over the Pole itself a weak minimum most 

 probably rests. This was evident from the weather 

 observations made at Cape Thordsen, Spitzbergen. 

 They show that storm-centres in July, coming 

 from the Iceland minimum, sometimes pass to the 

 north of Iceland west of Spitzbergen, toward the 

 Pole, instead of as usual going in a westerly 

 direction. Likewise minima sw^eep sometimes past 

 Fort Conger Polewards. 



As regards the frequence of southern winds at 

 Spitzbergen in July, the Swedish expedition of 

 1882-83 observed that the wind on eighteen days 

 of forty-six (July i-August 15) blew between SS.E. 

 and S.S.W., and on ten days a corresponding 

 movement of the clouds in the strata was observ- 

 able. As thus several days are fine we may con- 

 clude that a wind favourable to the balloon voyage 

 would prevail for about one- third of the season 

 selected for the undertaking. 



The Course of the Balloon. 



The balloon would, therefore, in all probability, 

 follow a minimum on its straight road from 

 West Spitzbergen across the Pole, and then be 

 carried down towards the Siberian coast, where 

 northerly winds prevail. It is, . therefore, not 

 improbable that the balloon would then sail west- 

 wards towards European Russia or Scandinavia. 

 But, be it understood, that would be the case under 

 the most favourable conditions, which are based 

 upon average calculations, from which there are 

 frequently great deviations. 



The Temfer.^ture. 



The fluctuations of temperature are less com- 

 plicated than the divisions of atmospheric pressure, 

 which is shown by two comparative charts I have 

 drawn that indicate the divisions of barometrical 

 pressure and heat around the Pole. We have 

 reason to conclude that the temperature around 

 the Pole in July is very steady and uniform. There 

 is a continuous day, and the sun's heat which falls 

 upon every yard of the earth's surface is fairly 



