In much of the boreal forests, snow covers the ground for half of the year. Since these boreal forests comprise approximately 15% of the land normally covered by snow during the winter and upwards of 40% of the land surface normally snow-covered during the spring and autumn, reliable measures of snow cover and snow mass are required for improved energy-balance and water-balance estimates. In this study, results from snow-depth climatological data (SDC), passive microwave satellite data, and output from general circulation models (GCMs) have been intercompared for the boreal forests of both North America and Eurasia. In Eurasia, during the winter months, snowmass estimates from these data sets correspond rather well; however, in North America, the passive microwave estimates are smaller than the estimates from the climatological data and the modeled data. The underestimation results primarily from the effects of vegetation on the microwave signal. The reason why the underestimation is a bigger problem in North America than in Eurasia is likely due to the use of global microwave algorithms that have not accounted for regional differences in the size of snow grains. The GCMs generally produce too much snow in the spring season. This is a result of the models having moisture amounts that are greater and temperatures that are slightly lower than observed, in the late winter and early spring periods. The models compare more favorably with the SDC in the Eurasian boreal forest than in the forests of North America during the winter season. However, in the spring, the model results for the North America boreal forest are in better agreement with the SDC than are the forests of Eurasia.

The record of Parliamentary proceedings relating to the Franklin search covers the period 1848–1863. The main subject of discussion was the need for the government to mount search expeditions, while topics such as rewards for successful expeditions and the question of the provision of monuments to Sir John Franklin also occupied Parliamentary time. Interest in the matter among Members of Parliament crossed party boundaries. Most of the activity was in the House of Commons rather than in the House of Lords, because the former House had control of expenditure. A further reason was that the government was more exposed to questioning in the House of Commons, because, for most of the period, the First Lord of the Admiralty was a member of that House. Lady Franklin also had a wider range of acquaintance in the House of Commons and was able to conduct a lobbying campaign using it as a medium.

Despite the harshness of the weather, the winter months on Spitsbergen provide good opportunities for auroral observing. December is usually the cloudiest month, but it also has many short-lived periods of post-cyclonic clearing of excellent clarity. January, however, is the most favourable month, with long periods of clear, dark skies due to the dominance of anticyclonic systems over the polar cap. February is also a very good month from the meteorological point of view, but observing opportunities are much more restricted by increasing twilight, especially in the latter half of the month. The most frequently observed types of aurora are patchy prenoon aurora, noontime or cusp aurora, discrete postnoon arcs, discrete polar-cap aurora, and substorm aurora. Diffuse polar-cap (polar glow) aurora and storm-type aurora are also seen occasionally but only at times of great geomagnetic disturbance.

Scurvy was a long-recognised problem amongst sailors, the cure and prevention ofwhich is sometimes incorrectly accredited to James Lind in the mid-eighteenth century. However, the therapeutic value of many antiscorbutic foods was discovered long before Lind's treatise on the scurvy was published in 1753, and problems with the deficiency continued well into the twentieth century. Through an examination of early Arctic exploration (1585–1632), the incidence and practical knowledge of this much-feared condition are analyzed. During this half century, knowledge of scurvy was far from complete, as is revealed in the journals of a number of voyages that set out in search of the Northwest Passage. From the careful reading of these journals many questions about the incidence of scurvy in the early exploration of the Canadian Arctic can be addressed.

Arctic pollution has become a focus of attention as a result of the admission byRussia of former indiscriminate dumping of radioactive waste in the Kara Sea; thus, radionuclides in the Arctic Basin have become a major cause for concern. Evidence for the bioaccumulation of toxic contaminants such as organochlorines, PCBs, and heavy metals in the Arctic food webwould seem to raise questions about this issue, there being little evidence of significant levels of radionuclide contamination in higher orders of the chain. However, there is growing evidence of a major influx of toxic material into the Arctic Basin, from riverine input and atmospheric deposition, which is transported to biologically active melt fronts. This suggests thatthe serious polluting of the Arctic Basin, combined with bioaccumulation processes, particularly for organochlorines and trace metals, is a major cause for concern. There is, then, a requirement for an overview of current information on Arctic pollutants, with a consideration of source, transport, and accumulation processes, in order to be able to apply some perspective to the situation, to quantify and qualify the problems, and to suggest appropriate actions.