Zur Erforschung der polaren troposphärischen Grundschicht vor dem Zweiten Internationalen Polarjahr 1932/1933

In the period between the two polar years 1882/83 and 1932/33, the classical captive and sounding balloon ascent methods developed at aerological observatories were also employed in the polar regions. It was only in the period leading up to the second Polar Year that radiosonde ascents and aircraft sounding came into use as new methods of aerological research. In the North Polar region, vertical temperature, humidity and wind profiles in the boundary layer were developed overseas (Arthur Berson, Hermann Elias, Hugo Hergesell) and in Greenland (Max Robitzsch, Alfred Wegener and others) during the early decades of the twentieth century with the aid of kite, captive and sounding balloon ascents. Here special attention was paid to cloud and inversion layers as well as to the catabatic wind then described for the first time. Various types of boundary layers, among them the extreme stratification conditions during the polar night, were also found by George Clarke Simpson and Erich Barkow in the Antarctic. Barkow’s micrometeorological measurements, including the registration of turbulent temperature fluctuations, are worthy of particular mention