On Axel Heiberg Island an area was selected for an High Arctic study and during the summers of 1959-1962 various earth scienctists concentrated on the elucidation of the phenomena presented. An essential part of the four-year programme was the operation of several weather stations, some of which have been continued for short periods since. The meteorological observations were made for two main purposes: 1) to assess the local climate, which is considerably different from that of the two rather distant, permanent weather stations, Eureka and Isachsen, and 2) to provide the necessarily detailed basis for a long-term investigation of the complex relationship between glacier and climate. (from the Preface by Fritz Mueller)

This report describes a meteorological and glacial-meteorological survey carried out in the summer of 1960 at Upper Ice Station I, a representative site in the accumulation area of the McGill Ice Cap on Axel Heiberg Island. Analyses of general meteorological, micrometeorological and radiation data were made, and simple climatological comparisons with other areas are shown. The heat balance study indicates that net radiation supplied about 64 per cent, atmospheric convection of sensible heat 35 per cent, and latent heat 1 per cent of the total heat supplied to the melting snow surface at the station during 320 hours of melt. It was found that, of the total heat available, 81 per cent was used to melt the snow surface and 19 per cent to heat the underlying layers of snow and ice. (from the Abstract)