First automatic meteorological stations for the Arctic

Abstract

The article examines the history of opening first automatic meteorological stations (AMS) for the Arctic in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, which measured meteorological parameters and transmitted them by radio. The idea of opening the stations belongs to the aerologist P.A. Molchanov. He invented the world’s first radiosonde for studying the atmosphere and in 1927 patented its coceptual scheme. In 1928, he proposed using a similar method of transmitting weather data over a distance by radio in the design of a ground-based AMS. Prototypes of the Molchanov AMS system were manufactured and tested as part of the work of the 2nd International Polar Year in the Pamirs and the Tikhaya Bay polar station (Franz Josef Land) in 1933–1934 and were the first in the world. This demonstrated the fundamental possibility of such devices operating in high- altitude and Arctic conditions, despite major testing problems. In 1935–1937, an improved AMS prototype was put into trial operation at the Tiksi polar station. P.A. Molchanov also worked on the creation of a drifting AMS, although these plans could not be realized. To date it has been a practically unknown fact that automatic weather stations were developed in the design department of the Leningrad State Factory of Meteorological Instruments “Metpribor”. Several samples of stationary and parachute AMS were made there in 1934–1936. The documents preserved in the collection of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) and the state archives of St. Petersburg, periodicals, research literature and a number of other sources made it possible to reconstruct the history of developing and improving the design of the first AMS in our country. Much of the information is provided for the first time.