of IPY-II is that instructions for the program of ob-
mainly to escort national shipping but also to serve
servations were produced in eight languages.
as platforms for scientific observations. Attempts
20
were made, with some success, to probe beneath
Whereas IPY-I had been restricted to manual obser-
the sea ice with submarines. In 1937 Russia es-
vations at the surface of the Earth, from stations
tablished a scientific station at the North Pole to
isolated from one another but following a pre-ar-
take oceanographic and weather observations as it