Variations in multiyear sea-ice backscatter from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) aboard the ERS-1 satellite are interpreted in terms of melt-season characteristics (onset of melt in spring and of freeze-up in autumn, and the duration of the snow-decay period, the melt season, and the melt-pond season) from late winter to early autumn 1992 in two regions of the Arctic Ocean: the northeastern Beaufort Sea adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Canadian high Arctic and the western Beaufort Sea north of Alaska. In the northeastern Beaufort Sea, the onset of melt occurs later, and the periods of snow-cover decay and the occurrence of melt ponds are shorter than in the western Beaufort Sea. These melt-season characteristics of each area are consistent with previous observations that the northeastern Beaufort Sea has one of the most severe summer climates in the Arctic Ocean. A model, which assumes that the backscatter from multiyear floes is the sum of backscatter from bare ice and melt ponds, is used to derive the melt-pond fraction during the summer. The results show that melt-pond fractions decrease from an early-summer maximum of about 60% to a late-summer minimum around 10%. The magnitude of the melt-pond fractions and their decline during the summer is consistent with previous, more qualitative data. The SAR model, which gives melt-pond fractions with lower variability and less uncertainty than previous data, offers an improved approach to the reliable estimation of the areal extent of water on ice floes. Suggestions for further improvement of the model include accounting for the consequences of wind-speed variations, summer snowfall, and freeze/thaw cycles and their effects on melt-pond and ice-surface roughness.

A quarter of the terrestrial Acari recorded from Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands are parasitic haematophages or non-feeding phoretics associated with other larger and more mobile animals, especially sea birds and pterygote insects. Although flying sea birds are effective vectors of zoohoric mites into the region, penguins are not and merely serve as reservoir hosts. Similarly, most of the mites associated with insects were accidentally introduced by man as free-living adults that subsequently utilised a range of alien and indigenous insects as local dispersal mechanisms.

The ship Fox, built in Aberdeen in 1855 as a yacht, was used by Francis Leopold McClintock on his successful search for relics of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. She was then chartered for one summer for Allen Young and John Rae to survey a route for a trans-Atlantic cable via the Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland, after which she was in the services of the Kryolith Mine og Handelsselskabet, based at Ivigtut, southwest Greenland, for many years. In 1905, under charter, she made a historically significant voyage to Thule in northwest Greenland. After this she was owned by the Kongelige Grønlanske Handel and used for coastal freighting, until in 1912 she was condemned and abandoned in Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) Harbour, where remnants may be seen today.

Each Antarctic Treaty Consultative Party established its national Antarctic operating agency in circumstances that were unique to itself. For some of the original members of the Antarctic Treaty, the initial organisations have continued to act as their national Antarctic operators. New members have either delegated responsibility to existing government organisations or have established new bodies to implement their national Antarctic programmes. The organisations selected to assume responsibility for operating the individual national Antarctic programmes, although varied, possess similar attributes and fall into four categories. Thedistinguishing features of these categories are based on the extent of the functions and financial responsibilities adopted by the agencies. By establishing their nature, this study offers a framework for analysis and a basis for further research on the styles and trends in organising national Antarctic programmes.

In 1853 William Parker Snow (who had earlier participated in an expedition to search for the missing Franklin expedition in what is now the Canadian Arctic) decided to sink the money he had made in Melbourne during the Australian gold rush into a private expedition to search for Franklin, starting from Melbourne. In the southern autumn of 1853, he bought a 16-ton cutter, The Thomas, and, despite the handicaps of exorbitant prices and shortage of labour, fitted the vessel out for an Arctic expedition during the continuing frenzy of the gold rush. After calling at Sydney, The Thomas started north but encountered a series of violent winter gales that damaged her severely and forced Snow to seek shelter in the mouth of the Clarence River in northeastern New South Wales. By the time the storm damage had been repaired, all but two of Snow's men had deserted. Still in hopes of trying again, Snow sailed his cutter back south to Sydney and there finally abandoned this, one of the more bizarre episodes of the Franklin search.