The first aeromagnetic survey in the Arctic: results of the iGraf Zeppelin/i airship flight of 1931

摘要

In July of 1931, on the eve of International Polar Year II, an Arctic flightof the Graf Zeppelin rigid airship was organized. This flight was arealization of the idea of F. Nansen, who advocated the use of airships forthe scientific exploration of the Arctic territories, which were poorlystudied and hardly accessible at that time. The route of the airship flightwas Berlin – Leningrad – Arkhangelsk – Franz Josef Land – SevernayaZemlya – the Taimyr Peninsula – Novaya Zemlya – Arkhangelsk – Berlin. Oneof scientific goals of the expedition was to measure the H and D geomagneticfield components. Actually, the first aeromagnetic survey was carried out inthe Arctic during the flight. After the expedition, only preliminary resultsof the geomagnetic measurements, in which an anomalous behavior of magneticdeclination in the high-latitude part of the route was noted, were published.Our paper is concerned with the first aeromagnetic measurements in theArctic and their analysis based on archival and modern data on the magneticfield in the Barents and Kara sea regions. It is shown that the magnetic fieldalong the flight route had a complicated structure, which was not reflectedin the magnetic charts of those times. The flight was very important forfuture development of aero- and ground-based magnetic surveys in the Arctic,showing new methods in such surveys.