In Search of Control: Arctic Weather Stations in the Early Cold War

Abstract

Matthias Heymann discusses the importance of meteorological data from Greenland not only for the successful prosecution of the Allied war effort, but also for support of aviation—both civilian and military—during the Cold War. The US military established and expanded weather observation stations in Greenland during the war, but immediately after, Denmark sought to regain control of the weather stations and their observational data despite a scarcity of resources. However, the US military not only wanted to continue operating these stations, but to build a chain of Arctic weather stations in northern Canada and Greenland. Although Canada and Denmark could not say “no” to the USA, they did work hard to guard their sovereign interests. Investigating the role of Arctic weather stations as contested scientific, political, and military installations, Heymann argues that weather stations not only provided meteorological information—they served as symbols for sovereignty, political, and military control.