This article presents the results of measurements of the components of ground-surface energy balance (radiation balance, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, and ground heat flux) taken during the 1994/95 summer season at Poland's Henryk Arctowski Station, King George Island, South Shetland Islands (62°09'42”S, 58°28'10”W). This was the first time that these complex measurements had been taken in the central part of the South Shetlands archipelago. The results are evaluated at the level of daily and seasonal fluctuations. The consequences of energy balance on the temperature conditions of the soil substrata are highlighted. The verification of the degree of influence of a subset of energy-balance components on soil temperature allowed analysis of the relationships among soil temperature, radiation balance, and sensible heat flux. This analysis leads to the conclusion that there is a rapid reaction of the soil temperature to the radiation balance and sensible heat flux to a depth of 5 cm. The boundary atmosphere and soil substrate represent the basic components of the ecotops of the Antarctic vegetation oasis, so these results are interpreted in pedological or botanical studies in the search for environmental influences on the vegetation.

By any measure, 1998 was a year of conflicting domestic and international interests regarding Russia's Northern Sea Route (NSR). The European Union sponsored an international demonstration project using a Finnish tanker during an April and May voyage to the Kara Sea. Russian icebreakers escorted the tanker, which carried a cargo of gas condensate from the Ob estuary to Europe. The International NSR Programme (INSROP) continued during a fifth year of interdisciplinary research concentrating on the integration of previous results and NSR voyage simulations. Lukoil and Gazprom forged ahead with building their own tanker fleets, while advertisements appeared in the Russian press protesting the use of foreign carriers in the Russian Arctic. In November Lukoil-affiliate companies acquired more than 50% interest in Murmansk Shipping Company, making Lukoil owner of 13% of the Russian merchant marine. Difficult escort operations through heavy ice were conducted late in the year so that Pevek would be supplied with adequate fuel to survive the coming winter.

Richard E. Byrd's record of the 9 May 1926 flight on which he claimed to have reached the North Pole was unsealed several years ago by the archives of Ohio State University. A close examination of Byrd's writings, calculations, and erasures in this diary shows clearly that, although he and Floyd Bennett achieved a farthest-north-seen and made a heroic attempt to attain the Pole, they never reached that destination. Despite efforts by some organisations and individuals to pretend that there is still a serious controversy, Byrd's own diary data variously confirm the belief long held by most polar experts: that the expedition on the dirigible Norge—led by Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth, and piloted by Umberto Nobile — was the first to attain the Pole, on 12 May 1926.