The Swedish–Russian Arc-of-Meridian expedition was a scientific expedition to Svalbard that took place from 1899 to 1902. The main purpose of the mission was to measure a meridian arc, in order to determine the earth flattening at the

poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

. The measurements were done by establishing a chain of

triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...

points from Keilhaufjellet in Sørkapp Land to

Vesle Tavleøya Vesle Tavleøya () is the larger island of the two northernmost of Sjuøyane - the other being Rossøya, north of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago ...

north of

Nordaustlandet Nordaustlandet (Anglicised as North East Land) is the second-largest island in the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, with an area of . It lies north east of Spitsbergen, separated by Hinlopen Strait. Much of Nordaustlandet lies under large ice ca ...

. The Russians were responsible for the southern measurements, while the Swedes performed the northern measurements from a base at Crozierpynten on the eastern side of Sorgfjorden. A total arc of 4°10' was measured. The expedition also took the first photographs of the

aurora An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

References

Arctic expeditions Svalbard Geodetic surveys History of Earth science 1899 in science 19th century in the Arctic 20th century in the Arctic {{geodesy-stub