The 1931 polar expedition of the Graf Zeppelin and its role in establishing the climatology of the Arctic stratosphere

An extended commentary is provided to the translation of the paper of Weickmann and Molchanov describing the meteorological observations taken during the 1931 Aeroarctic Expedition to explore the Barents Sea area from the airship Graf Zeppelin. This was a continuous flight with a crew of scientists and explorers traversing over 13,000 km in four days. It stirred remarkable worldwide interest as it combined public obsessions with both polar exploration and giant dirigible airships. From a scientific viewpoint the expedition was particularly noteworthy in deploying some of the very first balloon-borne radiosondes and their application to profiling the remote Arctic atmosphere up to the stratosphere. This commentary discusses the origins and execution of the expedition and provides details on the technology of the primitive radiosondes employed. This commentary also describes a broader historical and scientific context to help appreciation of the cultural relevance of the expedition and the significance of the meteorological data obtained.