METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH I N THE POLAR REGIONS

By R. A. HAMILTON Meteorological Ofice, Prestwick Remarks delivered at the meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society. 21 Junuary 1959

HERE is always a tendency to imagine that certain parts of the world, T and Greenlandis one of them, have special weather, and require unorthodox treatment by meteorologists. Broadly speaking, the argument put forward in my papers (Hamilton 1958,1958a) is that if you study 700 mb charts instead of the m.s.1. charts in the Greenland area, things happen there very much as they do in the British Isles. In different types of synoptic situation you get different types of weather, and depressions, waves and fronts pass over northern Greenland much as they do over this country and with much the same frequency ; the reason why the Greenland weather is so much more pleasant than that of London is that the fronts are weak and the inter-frontal type has an anticyclonic tendency and is normally fine. In a case like this, where a meteorologist has spent some time at one or two places, he is bound to get some ideas about their local weather. The difficulty thereafter is to know where and to what extent to publish his findings. A series of observations made on the inland ice is still comparatively rare and there is little doubt but that there is value in publishing some information about the weather there. In the case of our base at Britannia S0 in a mountainous area IOO km from the coast it is more difficult to judge ; in such a deeply dissected landscape where conditions may be different a t two places a few kilometres apart, there seems to be not much point in publishing some of the conclusions such as I did, for example, on the lengths of calms between windy periods. But if you don’t start somewhere you will never get anywhere, and the conclusions can be regarded as typical of the area, though if asked what the weather was likely to be at an unvisited locality B, one could not go so f a r as to say that it’s likely to be similar to A. So I am very grateful to the Society in affording so much of its valuable space to these papers.

Now I do not wish you to think that I am anything but rather diffident about these papers, which in effect, represent the digested meteorological results of the largest British Arctic expedition of this century. I do not propose to discuss these papers any more, but to make some more general remarks about research, and in particular meteorological research, in the polar regions. I do this not to excuse myself, but because there is much that is misrepresented and misunderstood in this field, and much that needs to be changed.

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The impression one gets from newspaper articles, film and television is that polar scientists as well as being he-men, are also technically experts in this field, and everything goes to plan. This is, of course, far from the truth and will remain so as far as this country is concerned unless we change our methods. I say ‘ in this country’ because unfortunately polar research is normally run on national grounds, and though the polar explorer is perhaps being pushed out by artificial satellites and space travel, there is still a certain amount of glamour and national prestige involved.

Some countries which exercise authority over Arctic temtory have Arctic institutes which actively promote research and year after year send expeditions intothefieldwithdefinite objectives in view. To a certain extent we do the same with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. But an Arctic expedition leaves this country only when somebody has a hunch that he would like to get one going and either has enough money or enough influence in financial quarters to get the thing started. The men he collects around him are those who happen- ed to hear his plans and happened to be available at the time, the research a scientist carries out is what he happens to think of when he is asked ‘ What do you intend to do and how much equipment do you need ? ’

As he travels in the Arctic day after day with no diversions in the way of newspapers or television he has plenty of time to think about these things. In the winter, he discusses them with his colleagues : he is perhaps a bit over- critical, but comes to certain conclusions and after some years a t home finds them mellowed, perhaps, but unchanged. When therefore, one sees the same mistakes being made over and over again, it is difficult not to start shouting from the touchlines.

Quite apart from the scientists’ point of view, that one wants to make the most of all opportunities for research, it is economic to do so. In commercial circles business men try to reduce the price of articles by spreading the overhead costs over large production. The costs of chartering a ship, of living huts, etc., are very high, and it is economic, there- fore, to pack as much research apparatus into the ship, and as much scientific ability into the hut as possible. The cost of our expedition was around L80,ooo -this is by no means the whole cost, but the cost of those items which had to be paid for in cash. Of this, something like ,I;IO,OOO was paid out for scientific apparatus, scientists’ salaries, working-up expenses on return, purchase of reprints for distribution, etc. The overheads, then, are enormous compared with the direct cost of the scientific research, which after all is the end product of the expedition. It is only wise and economic, therefore, to ensure that the very best use is made of opportunities for scientific research.

I t is most important that the men chosen should be really qualified and have adequate time for preparation. By qualified I mean that they should know what the problems for research are and be interested in attacking them. This sort of man may not often be available, but lack of knowledge of the problems can be compensated for by allowing him extra time for preparation. He should have at least one year in which to prepare his equipment and him-

I t is the same with polar research.

self for the expedition. I remember well the advice given to me by Sir George Simpson before I went on my first Arctic expedition. ‘ Take every piece of apparatus to bits,’ he said, ‘ until it is just pieces of brass and glass, and then put it together again. Then only will you know how it works.’ Not only do you learn how it works, I would add, but you also find out what tools are re- quired to take it to bits and to reassemble it, so that you don’t find yourself far from instrument makers without the necessary tools and the previous experience to carry out the repairs. I do not think I am exaggerating when I ask for a year in which to prepare, and finally to set up and try out the apparatus before setting out. Some of the best polar work of all times has been carried out by the Norwegian-British-Swedish Expedition to Dronning Maud Land, and this must be largely due to the excellent scientists and to the long time most of them had for preparation-they even delayed their departure date for a year because they realized they would not be ready in time. In our case I had four months in which to prepare, and that included supervision and general planning of all the scientific work, while Rollitt, our naval meteorologist, had less than 8 weeks. Between us we had only the most limited knowledge of the meteoro- logical problems to be attacked. Rollitt, I may remark, was not the last of the scientists to be selected. One candidate came for interview so near to the date for sailing that the stores officer said to me, ‘ Don’t worry too much about his qualifications as long as he takes size 8 in boots, for that’s what we’ve chosen for him ! ’ It is perhaps laughable, but it is unfortunately true thkt men are still being chosen for expeditions only a matter of weeks before the sailing date. The idea still persists, a relic perhaps of the Scott days, that if a man is adaptable and handy, then he will manage the job. Versatility and resourcefulness are great qualities in an expedition scientist, but they are no substitute for lack of preparation, they should be kept in reserve and used only when in spite of all preparations,, the unexpected happens.

Our faces were saved to a certain extent by the Expedition’s Scientific Planning Committee which decided on the priorities. Of all the sciences, meteorology received the lowest priority, so we did not make any ambitious plans-indeed we could not have done so at that late hour.

The work carried out in the field depends on the success of the preparations, affected as usual by good or bad luck. I am quite aware that the word bad luck is often a misnomer for lack of preparation. We had our bad luck : meteorological equipment suffered particularly due to the failure of parachutes to open when they were being dropped from the supply aircraft. You cannot expect to find a thermograph in working order after you have dug it up from 6 ft below the snow surface, the depth to which it penetrated after falling some 300 ft. However, though it was a heartrending sight, these losses made little, if any difference, to our results. The only serious loss to our research, i.e. to the measurement of humidity on the inland ice, was when the pump for the Dobson-Brewer frost-point hygrometer was broken in the air drop at the end of the first year, and even Rollitt’s engineering ability was unequal to the task of repairing it.

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The third phase, the time for working up the results, is as important as the preparations and the period in the field. Both Rollitt and I were fortunate in that we were released by our services for a full three years without any strings attached. We very much appreciate this. At the end of three years one has scarcely made a beginning, but again authority has been kind to me and allowed me to carry on working up the results in ofice time when my official duties permit. Again I much appreciate this, and have made full use of it. Let us not, however, underestimate the magnitude of the task if it is to be carried out in full. If you examine the time taken for the digested meteoro- logical results of past expeditions to be published it is generally of the order of ten years. Now I suppose it is heresy to say this, but I am not impressed by remarks to the effect that there has been enough information collected during the I.G.Y. to keep scientists busy for IOO years. There is a real need to publish results quickly, because one experiment leads to another, and a research worker has a duty to his successor in the same field to produce his digested results quickly. In fact there is always the risk that they will not be worked out at all, if not done quickly, as the man may die or go off on another job. Such happenings are by no means unknown in polar research. The reason that I mention this is to emphasize the reason why I have referred so little to the work of others. I soon realized that if I spent a lot of time reading up all the literature on the subject I would never get the results worked up : it is quite wrong in principle, I know, but I have just put on the blinkers and forged straight ahead without paying much attention to the far better work of my predecessors. So when I have repeated the work of others without referring to it, that is the reason.

Now I have no inflated ideas about the importance of polar research. This country is commercially and politically more interested in the tropical regions, and it may well be unwise to divert part of our effort in the Arctic which is already well cared for. In which case our future polar expeditions will continue to be cases of muddling through, If, however, we would like to make a better show, then much could be done by keeping under review the various problems to be solved, the techniques to be developed so that the meteorologist of a future expedition will not have to start from scratch but will be able to draw on current ideas of the problems to be investigated and the equipment to take. I suggest that this Society could well think about this in collaboration with the Meteorological Office and the Scott Polar Research Institute.

REFERENCES HAMILTON, R. A. 1958

1958a I b i d . , 84, p. 355 Quart. J. R. Met . Sac.. 84, p. 142

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