On 16 October 1901 Otto Nordenskjöld departed from Sweden for Antarctica. According to most accounts published during the twentieth century, the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901–03 planned and executed a substantial scientific programme, and made heroic efforts to overcome the adversity faced. This article investigates whether these descriptions are accurate and complete by examining both the long-established reports of Nordenskjöld's expedition and numerous rarely used primary sources, such as diaries and letters. In comparing these primary sources with narratives from various expedition members, competing versions of aspects of the expedition appear. This article particularly focuses on reports concerning sealing and whaling, and on the representation of the human frailties of the expedition members.

Radar backscatter in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions is temporally dynamic and reflects changes in sea ice, glacier facies, soil thaw state, vegetation cover, and moisture content. Wind scatterometers on the ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites have amassed a global archive of C-band radar backscatter data since 1991. This paper derives three high temporal resolution data products from this archive that are designed to facilitate scatterometer research in high-latitude environments. Radar backscatter data have a grid spacing of 25 km and are mapped northwards from 60°N latitude over intervals of one, three, and seven days for the period 1991–2000. Data are corrected to a normalized incident angle of 40°. Animations and full-resolution data products are freely available for scientific use at http://merced.gis.ucla.edu/scatterometer/index.htm.

Although more widely known as the founder of modern embryology, Karl Ernst von Baer played a special role in the investigation of the physical geography of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. Baer not only conducted his own scientific research in the Arctic, he was also a key supporter and organiser of other Russian expeditions to the far north. Baer carried out the first investigations of the physical geography, flora, and fauna of Novaya Zemlya, and it was due to his work that the first precise data on the climate of the Russian Arctic appeared in the scientific literature in Europe. He can also be considered the founder of geocryology, as he not only wrote the first theoretical survey on Siberian permafrost, but was the initiator and organiser of the first expedition, under the leadership of Alexander Theodor von Middendorff, that was launched with the task of studying that phenomenon in Siberia. Baer was instrumental in the restoration of the tradition of Russian Arctic exploration, which had died out at the end of the eighteenth century; it was at his initiative that the Russian Geographical Society — which later became the leader in Russian Arctic exploration — was founded in 1845.

An extensive terrestrial drainage system, centred on Algae Lake in southern Bunger Hills, is described. The 25-km-long Algae River is the third longest known in Antarctica after Onyx River (Wright Valley, Victoria Land) and Druzhby River (Vestfold Hills, Queen Elizabeth Land). Algae River receives meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet, Apfel Glacier, and ephemeral and permanent snow banks in the ice-free area of the Bunger Hills. Water flows through a series of epiglacial lakes before reaching the extensive Algae Lake, which in turn has an outlet to Transkriptsii Gulf, a largely fresh-water, tidal epishelf lake connected to the ocean under the Edisto Ice Tongue and Shackleton Ice Shelf. Total flow from Algae Lake was estimated to be greater than 1 x 107 m3 a-1 from data collected in the 1986/87 summer. Some portions of the drainage system that were flowing during the 1946/47,1985/86, 1986/87, 1994/95, 1995/96, and 1998/99 summers were not flowing during the 1999/2000 summer, indicating the variable nature of discharge in the river and emphasising that parts of the drainage network may become disconnected readily.

This note considers the recent developments in Anglo–Argentine relations vis-à-vis the overseas territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. The construction of the research station in South Georgia is considered significant because it signals the ending of the 19-year British military presence on the island. The Falkland Islands elections of November 2001 have shown that public opinion is still divided over the provisions of the Anglo- Argentine Joint Statement of 14 July 1999, which inter alia removed restrictions on Argentine passport holders entering the Falklands. Finally, the prospects for further rapprochement between Britain and Argentina are considered, and it is noted that these outstanding territorial disputes will continue to demand careful management notwithstanding the presence of the ‘sovereignty umbrella’ in the case of the Falklands.

This is the first in a series of biographies entitled ‘Children of the Golden Age’, the purpose of which is to describe the background and contributions of a number of significant living figures in polar research, all of whom began their scientific careers and earned their Antarctic spurs in the years following World War II. Bernard Stonehouse was born in Hull on 1 May 1926. Joining the Royal Navy in 1944, he trained as a pilot, and in 1946–50 served as meteorologist, second pilot, dog-sledger, and ultimately biologist with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, mainly from Base E, Stonington Island, Antarctic Peninsula. His first biological investigation was a winter study of breeding emperor penguins. Returning to Britain in 1950 he read zoology and geology at University College, London. Doctoral research at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology and Merton College, Oxford, involved an 18-month field study of king penguins on South Georgia. Between 1960 and 1968, as senior lecturer, later reader, in zoology, at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, he continued Antarctic and sub-Antarctic research in McMurdo Sound and on the New Zealand southern islands. A Commonwealth Research Fellowship at the University of British Columbia, 1970–71, gave him opportunities for research in the Yukon. After developing undergraduate and postgraduate studies in environmental science at the University of Bradford, 1972–83, he joined the Scott Polar Research Institute as editor of Polar Record, thereafter forming the Institute's Polar Ecology and Management Group, and heading a long-term study on the ecological impacts of polar tourism. At SPRI he continues to combine the two factors that have always played an important part in his life: working in polar regions and communicating with the general public on issues of biology, the environment, and conservation.