First International Polar Year

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The German station on Kingua Fjord, Baffinland

The First International Polar Year was a joint research venture between European countries and the USA to research the polar regions . It took place from the summer of 1882 to the summer of 1883 at the suggestion of Carl Weyprecht . At 14 manned stations, twelve of them in the Arctic, meteorological and geomagnetic measurement data were collected over a period of one year according to a predetermined mode .

history

State of polar research in the 1870s

Since the early voyages of discovery in the 16th century, which led European captains to the Arctic in search of an alternative sea route to East Asia , the character of polar voyages had changed in the second half of the 19th century. In the 1870s, a polar expedition was expected to make a variety of scientific observations of an astronomical , geophysical , meteorological , zoological, or oceanographic nature. Although the expedition teams were often multinational, there was hardly any international cooperation. There was widespread rivalry between the various expeditions as well as between the various states. Priority goals were geographical discoveries, reaching the North Pole or mastering the Northwest or Northeast Passage . Scientific observations came in second.

preparation

Carl Weyprecht (1838-1881)

The idea of ​​internationally coordinated scientific research into the polar regions arose in the early 1870s. As early as 1873, the first International Meteorological Congress in the Vienna Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics on the Hohe Warte recommended the establishment of meteorological stations in the polar regions. Carl Weyprecht, a German naval officer in the service of Austria-Hungary , who led the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition from 1872 to 1874 together with Julius Payer, is considered to be the inspiration for the first polar year. Weyprecht presented his basic principles of Arctic research in a lecture on September 18, 1875 at the 48th meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors in Graz . He took the view that "arctic research is of the highest importance for knowledge of the laws of nature", but that individual series of observations are only of relative value. At the same time he made it clear that the geographic pole is no more important to science than any other point located at higher latitudes.

On October 5, 1879, the International Polar Commission was constituted in Hamburg , and the German geophysicist Georg von Neumayer was elected its first chairman . The original plan to start the polar year as early as 1881, for which a sunspot maximum was expected, turned out to be impracticable, as only four countries (Denmark, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Norway) had made a binding commitment by May 1880. Norway only on the condition that at least eight stations come together. Since von Neumayer had not yet found the support of his government, the chairmanship of the polar commission passed to Heinrich von Wild , the director of the Central Physical Observatory in Saint Petersburg , who succeeded in persuading the Russian government to promise a second stop. The organizational breakthrough came in the spring of 1881 with the participation of the USA. By the spring of 1882, eleven states had been obliged to operate 14 stations, two of them in the southern hemisphere .

In August 1881, the participants of the 3rd International Polar Conference in Saint Petersburg agreed to carry out work from August 1, 1882 to August 31, 1883 mainly in the fields of meteorology and geomagnetism, as well as research into the aurora borealis. For example, hourly weather observations should be made, which included measurements of temperature , air pressure , humidity and wind speed , among other things . On the 1st and 15th of each month, measurements should be taken at five-minute intervals over a 24-hour period.

execution

The American expedition to Fort Conger began work in the summer of 1881. The other observation stations were put into operation in 1882 and operated according to the planned program. Only the Dutch expedition did not reach their intended station at Dikson at the mouth of the Yenisei in Siberia due to difficult ice conditions in the Kara Sea . The station was then built on the pack ice and carried out the planned meteorological observations. However, geomagnetic measurements had to be dispensed with. The expedition ship Varna was abandoned in 1883. The participants of the expedition were able to save themselves in August 1883 after a 24-day walk across the ice to the island of Waigatsch , where they were discovered by several ships.

The enterprise ended tragically for the crew of the northernmost station under their leader Adolphus Greely . After the supply ship had not reached Fort Conger in 1882, it was not possible in 1883 to bring the participants back. Greely then closed the station on August 7, 1883 and set off with his men on foot to Smithsund . Only 7 of the 25 men survived the winter at Cape Sabine on Pim Island without sufficient food reserves. They were saved in June 1884.

First International Polar Year (Arctic Ocean)
Godthaab
Godthaab
Kingua fjord
Kingua fjord
Sodankylä
Sodankylä
Kara Sea
Kara Sea
Fort Rae
Fort Rae
Bossekop
Bossekop
Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen
Sagastyr
Sagastyr
Malyje Karmakuly
Malyje Karmakuly
Cape Thordsen
Cape Thordsen
Point Barrow
Point Barrow
Fort Conger
Fort Conger
The Arctic Stations of the First International Polar Year 1882/83
The Finnish Sodankylä station in Lapland
The station of the Austrians on the island of Jan Mayen
Dutch station on the pack ice of the Kara Sea
Stations
country place Coordinates ladder
Denmark Godthaab , West Greenland 64 ° 11 ′  N , 51 ° 44 ′  W. A. Paulsen
Germany Kingua Fjord , Baffin Island 66 ° 36 '  N , 67 ° 19'  W W. Giese
Germany Moltke Harbor , South Georgia 54 ° 31 ′  S , 36 ° 1 ′  W C. Schrader
Finland Sodankylä , Northern Finland 67 ° 24 '  N , 26 ° 36'  E S. Lemström , E. Biese
France Orange Bay , Tierra del Fuego 55 ° 31 ′  S , 68 ° 5 ′  W JL Courcelle-Seneuil
Great Britain Fort Rae , Great Slave Lake , Canada 62 ° 39 ′  N , 115 ° 44 ′  W. H. Ph. Dawson
Netherlands Kara Sea 71 ° 0 '  N , 63 ° 0'  E M. Snellen
Norway Bossekop , Northern Norway 69 ° 57 '  N , 23 ° 15'  E A. Steen
Austria-Hungary Wilczek-Thal, Jan Mayen 71 ° 0 ′  N , 8 ° 28 ′  W. E. von Wohlgemuth
Russia Sagastyr , Lena Delta 73 ° 23 '  N , 126 ° 35'  E N. Juergens
Russia Malyje Karmakuly , Novaya Zemlya 72 ° 22 '  N , 52 ° 36'  E KP Andreev
Sweden Cape Thordsen , Svalbard 78 ° 28 '  N , 15 ° 42'  E NG Ekholm
United States Point Barrow , Alaska 71 ° 18 ′  N , 156 ° 50 ′  W PH Ray
United States Fort Conger , Ellesmere Island 81 ° 44 ′  N , 64 ° 45 ′  W. AW Greely

Results

At its 4th meeting in Vienna from April 17 to 24, 1884, the Polar Commission decided to publish the meteorological and geophysical data of the individual stations in a standardized format by 1885. The processing of the results dragged on for a long time until the last publication appeared in 1910. A comprehensive presentation of the results of all stations did not appear. The polar commission met again in 1891 and then disbanded.

The First International Polar Year brought a number of interesting individual results, but it is of particular importance in the field of science policy . An international research cooperation of this magnitude had not existed before. Polar research, however, continued to be dominated by the race to the North Pole, at least in the eyes of the public.

More international polar years

50 years later (1932–1933) the 2nd polar year took place. The International Geophysical Year was inspired by the IPY and took place with the 3rd Polar Year (1957–1958). The 4th polar year began in March 2007 and lasted until March 2009.

literature

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ R. Bulkeley: The First Three Polar Years - A General Overview . Chapter 1 in: Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (Ed.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs) . Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2010, pp. 1–6 (English)
  2. ↑ C. Lüdecke: 125 years ago - the second international meteorological congress in Rome in 1879 . In: DMG-Mitteilungen 1, 2004, pp. 14-16.
  3. ^ G. Neumayer: The international polar research 1882–83. The German expeditions and their results . Vol. 1, Asher, Berlin 1891, p. 19 . The longitude of the French station given there has been corrected as it obviously refers to the Paris meridian. The coordinates of the Dutch station were taken from: C. Lüdecke: The First International Polar Year (1882–83). A big science experiment with small science equipment . In: Proceedings of the International Commission on History of Meteorology 1.1, 2004, pp. 55–64 (English)
  4. ↑ The ship Varna of the Dutch expedition froze in the Kara Sea and did not reach its intended destination Dikson in Siberia. The station was then set up in the pack ice and the planned scientific program, with the exception of geomagnetic measurements, was carried out.
  5. ↑ The International Polar Year 2007/2008 on the website of the German Commission for the International Polar Year, accessed on September 8, 2016.

Web links

Commons : International Polar Year (1882-1883)  - collection of images, videos, and audio files