The ionosphere is a thick mantle of partly ionized gas surrounding the earth at heights between 80 and 800 km. It was discovered about fifty years ago, and during the last decade has been studied intensively at observatories all over the world. These studies consist primarily of observing the characteristics of radio waves reflected from the ionosphere. Since waves of different frequencies are reflected at different heights, it is possible to determine how the electron density varies with height, up to the height of maximum density at about 300 km. Radio waves which pass this height, however, continue into space and are not reflected. Consequently very little direct information can be obtained from the ground about the characteristics and behaviour of the ionized region above 300 km.

[The South Shetland Islands were first sighted in February 1819 by William Smith, master and part-owner of the brig Williams of Blyth, and resighted in October of that year, when Smith landed and claimed the territory for the British Crown. On his arrival at Valparaiso, he and his ship were taken over by the British naval authorities and sent back in December 1819 with Edward Bransfield, Master, R.N., and a small naval staff to survey the new territory. During their absence on this duty, an account of the discovery by John Miers and a sketchmap signed by “Henry Foster, Midn H.M.S. Creole”, both dated January 1820, were sent home. The former was published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Vol. 3, No. 6, 1820, p. 367–80, and the latter is preserved among the original documents of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty (Press mark S 90/3 Ael).

John Miers (1789–1879) was an English engineer who had gone out to Valparaiso in 1819 at the invitation of Lord Cochrane, then commanding the Chilean Navy, to help in developing that country's mineral resources. He was installing a plant at Conc6n for rolling copper plate for sheathing vessels, and had contracted with Smith for the transport of mining machinery from Valparaiso to Concón in the Williams, when Captain Sheriff, the Senior British Naval Officer at Valparaiso, decided to charter the Williams and to send Bransfield to the Antarctic.

When the Geographical Society of Berlin officially welcomed Alfred Wegener's expedition back from Greenland in 1931, a memorial address was made in honour of the expedition leader who died on the Greenland icecap in 1930. This address included a report that shed light on the difficulties that had confronted the expediton. Wegener was remembered as a researcher who provided an example of ‘a magnificent conception of his duty as leader’ and who risked his life to rescue his comrades. Wegener's death was blamed on a chain of unfortunate accidents, especially bad weather conditions. Using material that was hidden in the archives, this paper examines several additional aspects of the story, such as the influence of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (Emergency Society for German Science), which financed the expedition; the erroneous judgements of the expedition leader as well as some expedition members; and the lack of radio transmission. The conclusion is that no single individual can be blamed for Wegener's death, despite the fact that one expedition member, Johannes Georgi, was made the scapegoat.

Much of the literature relating to the climate of Antarctica has been concerned with the prevalence of strong winds and accompanying drifting snow which are such a feature of the environment. Not so well known are the variations, both with time and geographical location, in the frequency of occurrence of calms and light winds, or the synoptic scale and local influences associated with these conditions. However, calms are frequently of considerable operational importance to expeditions and the meteorological factors associated with them have some significance as indicators of general circulation characteristics.

On the Byrd Antarctic Expedition II a third mode of transportation was added to the existing means of dogs and aircraft—the use of tractors. Previous attempts had been made to use motor transport, first on Shackleton's Expedition in 1908, Scott's in 1910, and on the Byrd Antarctic Expedition in 1928–30. Shackleton had taken a regular motor car, which was of use on the hard bay ice, for handling supplies, but it proved inadequate for the softer surface of the barrier. Scott used special tractors, but they were not a success.

In 1933, the steamer Chelyuskin sailed from Murmansk, east bound to attempt a transit of the Northern Sea Route to the Pacific, in order to demonstrate that such a transit could be achieved in one season. The vessel became beset in heavy ice in the Chukchi Sea, and after drifting with the ice for over two months, was crushed and sank on 13 February 1934. Apart from one fatality, her entire complement of 104 people was able to establish a camp on the sea ice. The Soviet government organised an impressive aerial evacuation, under which all were rescued. Following several unsuccessful attempts, the wreck was located on the bed of the Chukchi Sea by a Russian expedition, Chelyuskin-70, in mid-September 2006. Two small components of the ship's superstructure were recovered by divers and were sent to the ship's builders, Burmeister and Wein of Copenhagen, for identification.

Southernmost of the Falkland Islands, Beauchêne Island (52° 54' S, 59° 09' W, area 3 km2) is a wildlife reserve with large colonies of Black-browed albatrosses and Rockhopper penguins. Discovered and named in 1701 by the French explorer Jacques Gouin de Beauchesne, it was noted by many early navigators and visited frequently by fur sealers in the 19th century. This article draws attention to early reports and outlines what is known of its history.