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54-476: The institute's activities are focused on environmental research and management in the polar regions . The NPI's researchers investigate biodiversity, climate and environmental toxins in the Arctic and Antarctic , and in this context the institute equips and organizes large-scale expeditions to both polar regions. The institute contributes to national and international climate work, and is an active contact point for

108-498: A Rome- Rio de Janeiro flight, and held back support for polar expeditions. In late 1925 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen sought out Nobile to collaborate on a flight to the North Pole – still at that time an unreached goal for aviators – using an airship. Amundsen had previously in early 1925 flown to within 150 nautical miles (280 km) of the North Pole, in a pair of Italian-built Dornier Wal flying boats along with

162-629: A half hours later the ship flew over the Pole and landed two days later in Teller, Alaska ; strong winds had made the planned landing at Nome, Alaska, impossible. In retrospect, the Norge crew actually achieved their aim of being the first to overfly the Pole: Byrd's 9 May flight, acclaimed for decades as the prestigious first Polar flyover, has since been subjected to several credible challenges, including

216-493: A large permanent exhibition on his achievements. A museum in his hometown of Lauro collects his documents and memorabilia. Nobile was married to Carlotta Ferraiolo, daughter of a wealthy notary from Teano and ten years his senior, from 1916 until her death in 1934. Together they had a daughter, Maria. In 1959 he remarried with Gertrude Stolp, a German woman whom he had met in Spain in 1943 and who later became chief librarian at

270-465: A larger area, being less concentrated, and also travels a longer distance through the Earth's atmosphere in which it may be absorbed, scattered or reflected, which is the same thing that causes winters to be colder than the rest of the year except in tropical regions. The axial tilt of the Earth has the most effect on climate of the polar regions due to its latitude. However, since the polar regions are

324-787: A member of the Pontificial Academy of Sciences . For a few months he also worked on aviation projects with Caproni , including methods to recover from a spin and an aircraft that could carry a MAS (motorboat) or a tank . Due to the hostility of the Fascist government, Nobile moved to the United States in 1939 to teach at Lewis University (at the time called Lewis Holy Name School of Aeronautics due to its aviation-focused curriculum) in Romeoville and in Chicago . He

378-482: A new expedition, this time fully under Italian control. Nobile's company managed to sell the N-3 airship to Japan; however, relations between Nobile and his competitors in the fascist government were hostile, and he and his staff were subjected to threats and intimidation. Nobile's popularity with the public meant he was, for the moment, safe from direct attack. When the plans for his next expedition were announced, Italo Balbo

432-475: A pontoon from the craft was later found, the bodies of Amundsen, the pilot René Guilbaud and the four others on board were not. After a month of privation for the Italia survivors, the first rescue plane, a Swedish Air Force Fokker C.V -E ski plane , piloted by Lieutenant Einar Lundborg and with Lieutenant Schyberg as observer landed near the crash site. Nobile had prepared a detailed evacuation plan, with

486-453: A radio transceiver, a tent which they later painted red for maximum visibility, and, critically, boxes of food and survival equipment which quick-witted engineer Ettore Arduino had managed to throw onto the ice before he and his five companions were carried off to their deaths by the wrecked but still airborne airship envelope and keel. As the days passed, the drifting sea ice took the survivors towards Foyn and Broch islands. A few days after

540-845: A special collection pertaining to Umberto Nobile . The Photo Library contains pictures from polar expeditions, mapping in Svalbard, Greenland and Antarctica, research (including geology, glaciology, biology and oceanography) and commercial activities such as mining in Svalbard, seal hunting in the White Sea , whaling in the Southern Ocean and trapping in Greenland and Svalbard. The collection consists of about 90,000 photographs, including some 60,000 historical photographs. The rest are modern images documenting research activity in Svalbard and Antarctica and adjacent marine areas. A large part of

594-403: A type of marine Crustacea , which in turn feed a complex of living creatures from penguins to blue whales . Umberto Nobile Umberto Nobile ( Italian pronunciation: [umˈbɛrto ˈnɔːbile] ; 21 January 1885 – 30 July 1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. Nobile was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships in the years between

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648-849: A year-round research station in Ny-Ålesund . In 1979, the NPI became was a directorate under the Ministry of the Environment (currently the Ministry of Climate and Environment ). In 1993, the decision was made in the Norwegian Parliament to move the headquarters of the NPI from Oslo , Norway's capital, to Tromsø , a coastal city north of the Arctic Circle . The process was completed in 1998. This relocation led to changes in

702-479: Is said to have commented, "Let him go, for he cannot possibly come back to bother us anymore." The Italia , nearly identical to the Norge , was slowly completed and equipped for Polar flight during 1927–28. Part of the difficulty was in raising private funding to cover the costs of the expedition, which finally was financed by the city of Milan; the Italian government limited its direct participation to providing

756-542: Is the largest research station in Antarctica , run by the United States. Other notable stations include Palmer Station and Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (United States), Esperanza Base and Marambio Base ( Argentina ), Scott Base ( New Zealand ), and Vostok Station (Russia). While there are no indigenous human cultures, there is a complex ecosystem, especially along Antarctica's coastal zones. Coastal upwelling provides abundant nutrients that feed krill ,

810-695: Is the official agency responsible for place names in the Norwegian polar regions. These areas include Svalbard and Jan Mayen and their adjacent waters, Queen Maud Land , Bouvet Island , and Peter I Island . Place names are officially adopted by the responsible committee at the NPI, which maintains a database of place names that is publicly searchable. The NPI was established in 1948 under the Norwegian Ministry of Industry , but must be seen as an extension of Norwegian Svalbard and Arctic Ocean Survey, Norges Svalbard og Ishavsundersøkelser (NSIU) , which

864-573: The Arctic Ocean in the north, and by the Antarctic ice sheet on the continent of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the south. The Arctic has various definitions, including the region north of the Arctic Circle (currently Epoch 2010 at 66°33'44" N), or just the region north of 60° north latitude, or the region from the North Pole south to the timberline . The Antarctic is usually defined simply as south of 60° south latitude, or

918-676: The Italia crash, and not only reinstated him at his former rank as major general, but promoted him to lieutenant general and awarded him back pay dating to 1928. The following year he was elected to the Constituent Assembly as independent candidate in the lists of the Italian Communist Party . In that capacity he was part of the 75-member Committee that produced the main draft of the Italian Constitution . In 1948, Nobile returned to teaching at

972-632: The United States ( Alaska ), Canada ( Yukon , the Northwest Territories and Nunavut ), Denmark ( Greenland ), Norway , Finland , Sweden , Iceland , and Russia . Arctic circumpolar populations, though small, often share more in common with each other than with other populations within their national boundaries. As such, the northern polar region is diverse in human settlements and cultures. The southern polar region has no permanent human habitation as of now. McMurdo Station

1026-835: The University of Naples in 1908 with a degree in industrial engineering, Nobile was hired by the Italian state railways. In 1911 his interests turned to the field of aeronautical engineering and he enrolled into a course offered by the Italian Army's Engineers Corps. During World War I he served as a military engineer , working at the Military Factory for Aeronautical Construction and Experience ( Stabilimento Militare di Costruzioni ed Esperienze Aeronautiche ) in Rome. During this time he designed airships designed for anti-submarine reconnaissance, 15 of which would be built after

1080-525: The University of Tromsø and the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research being the other users of the vessel. The NPI has built up a sizeable polar history collection in the form of photographs, books, journals and other archival materials. The Library contains unique collections of polar history literature, including more than 15,000 books as well as diaries, ship registers and logbooks, newspaper cuttings and special collections, for example,

1134-465: The American millionaire-adventurer Lincoln Ellsworth and the pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen , but their planes were forced to land near 88 degrees North, and the six men were trapped on the ice for 30 days. The Italian State Airship Factory, which had built Nobile's N-1, made it available for the expedition 29 March 1926. Amundsen insisted in the contract that Nobile should be the pilot and that five of

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1188-570: The Military Factory's first projects in this direction was the T-34 , which was designed for a trans-Atlantic crossing. The United States Army purchased the airship in 1921 and commissioned it as the Roma . In February 1922 the hydrogen-fueled Roma crashed and exploded in Norfolk, Virginia , after hitting high-tension power lines, killing 34 in what was the worst aviation disaster in the United States at

1242-763: The NSIU. From 1949 to 1952, the NPI led the multinational Maudheim Expedition to Antarctica and had a base in Queen Maud Land from 1956 to 1960 (Norway Station), during the International Geophysical Year , also known as the third International Polar Year . The NPI established the permanent research station Troll in Antarctica in 1989–90; Troll has been operated as a year-round research station since 2005. The NPI carried out annual summer expeditions to Svalbard and, starting in 1968, has had

1296-459: The Soviet icebreaker "Krasin" . However, there were persistent rumors that Malmgren was killed and cannibalized by Zappi and Mariano. A "highly imaginative, fictionalized version" of these events was made into the 1969 film The Red Tent . The film was an Italian/Soviet co-production and featured Peter Finch as Nobile, Sean Connery as Amundsen and Hardy Krüger as Lundborg. In the wake of

1350-547: The University of Naples, where he studied and taught aeronautical and astronautical subjects. He continued giving interviews and writing books and articles until his death, without managing to fully sway public opinion and some military experts of his version of the events of his polar expeditions. Nobile died in Rome on 30 July 1978, aged 93, shortly after the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of his two expeditions. The Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle has

1404-521: The airship and sending the aging steamer Città di Milano as a support vessel to Svalbard , under the command of Giuseppe Romagna . This time the airship used a German hangar at Stolp en route to Svalbard and the mast at Vadsø (Northern Norway). On 23 May 1928, after an outstanding 69-hour-long flight to the Siberian group of Arctic islands, the Italia commenced its flight to the North Pole with Nobile as both pilot and expedition leader. On 24 May,

1458-558: The assembly of the N-3 airship, which had been sold to the Japanese Imperial Navy , and personally took part in several test flights. Nobile later claimed that during this time he faced professional hostility from some high-profile members of the Air Force establishment, including Italo Balbo , who had some of the best workers of the Military Factory dismissed on suspicion of being anti-fascists , obstructed plans for

1512-481: The collection is accessible to the public via the NPI's online image archive. Polar regions The polar regions , also called the frigid zones or polar zones , of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps , the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles ), lying within the polar circles . These high latitudes are dominated by floating sea ice covering much of

1566-507: The continent of Antarctica. The 1959 Antarctic Treaty uses the former definition. The two polar regions are distinguished from the other two climatic and biometric belts of Earth, a tropics belt near the equator, and two middle latitude regions located between the tropics and polar regions . Polar regions receive less intense solar radiation than the other parts of Earth because the Sun's energy arrives at an oblique angle , spreading over

1620-468: The crash the Swedish meteorologist Finn Malmgren and Nobile's second and third in command Mariano and Zappi decided to leave the immobile group and march towards land. Malmgren, who was injured, weakened and reportedly still depressed over his meteorological advice that he felt contributed to the crash, asked his two Italian companions to continue without him. These two were picked up several weeks later by

1674-514: The crash, a collection of nations, including the Soviet Union, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Italy, launched the first polar air and sea rescue effort. Privately owned ships which had been chartered by polar scientists and explorers also participated. Even Roald Amundsen put aside his past differences with Nobile and boarded a French seaplane and headed for the rescue headquarters; this plane disappeared between Tromsø and Svalbard , and though

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1728-452: The crew should be Italian; Amundsen named the airship Norge ( Norway ). On 14 April the airship left Italy for Leningrad in Russia with stops at Pulham (England) and Oslo. On its way towards its Arctic jumping-off point, Ny-Ålesund (Kings Bay) at Vestspitsbergen, Svalbard (belonging to Norway) it also made a stop at the airship mast at Vadsø (Northern Norway). On 29 April Amundsen

1782-507: The dictator by detailing his grievances at length. The official inquiry and the embarrassment over the crash gave Nobile's enemies the chance they were looking for: blame for the disaster was placed on his shoulders, and he was accused of abandoning his men on the ice – charges he would spend the rest of his life trying to dispel. In protest of the findings, General Nobile resigned from the air force in March 1929. In July 1931, Nobile took part in

1836-424: The discovery of Byrd's flight diary, which showed that navigational data in his official report was fraudulent. Byrd's co-pilot Bennett is said later to have admitted that they faked their flight to the Pole. The Norge "Rome to Nome" flight was acclaimed as another great milestone in flight, but disagreement soon erupted between Nobile (designer and pilot), and Amundsen (expedition leader, observer and passenger) on

1890-680: The expedition of the Soviet icebreaker Malygin to Franz Josef Land and the northern Kara Sea . He moved to the Soviet Union in 1932, and lived there for nearly five years to work on the Soviet semi-rigid airship program . Few details of the program have been documented, but Nobile supervised the manufacturing of three airships, including SSSR-V6 OSOAVIAKhIM , and designed two others that were intended for military use. Nobile returned to Italy in December 1936, after he had been appointed as

1944-462: The farthest from the equator , they receive the weakest solar radiation and are therefore generally frigid year round due to the earth's axial tilt of 23.5° not being enough to create a high maximum midday declination to sufficiently compensate the Sun's rays for the high latitude even in summer, except for relatively brief periods in peripheral areas near the polar circles. The large amount of ice and snow also reflects and weakens of what weak sunlight

1998-489: The flight, as to who deserved greater credit for the expedition. The controversy was exacerbated by Mussolini's Fascist government, which trumpeted the genius of Italian engineering and exploration; Nobile was ordered to make a speaking tour of the U.S., further alienating Amundsen and the Norwegians. Despite the controversy, Nobile continued to maintain good relations with other polar scientists, and he started planning

2052-430: The gondola; the fate of the six men was never resolved. One of the ten men on the ice, Pomella, died from the impact; Nobile suffered a broken arm, broken leg, broken rib and head injury; Cecioni suffered two badly broken legs; Malmgren suffered a severe shoulder injury and suspected injury to a kidney; and Zappi had several broken ribs. The crew managed to salvage several items from the crashed airship gondola, including

2106-414: The institute is responsible for the management of all Norwegian activities. This means that all Norwegian subjects planning activities in Antarctica must first contact the NPI. The NPI maintains a database of reported sightings of whales, walruses, seals, and polar bears in the Svalbard area to which the public is encouraged to contribute. The reported sightings are used in research and monitoring. The NPI

2160-589: The institute's profile and areas of interest as departments were reorganized, new personnel recruited, new positions established and research priorities shifted. The NPI runs the Sverdrup Station and the Zeppelin Observatory in Svalbard, the Troll and Tor research stations in Antarctica, and Norvegia Station on Bouvet Island. The NPI owns the research vessel RV Kronprins Haakon , with

2214-448: The international scientific community. The institute collects and analyses data on the environment and cultural heritage sites on the islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen through the project Environmental Monitoring of Svalbard and Jan Mayen (MOSJ). Topographic mapping is also an important task: the NPI is the national surveying and mapping authority for Norway's polar areas, including non-commercial geological surveys. In Antarctica ,

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2268-406: The most seriously wounded man (the heavy built mechanic Cecioni) at the top of the list and himself as number 4, with the navigator (Viglieri) and the radio operator (Biagi) as respectively no. 5 and 6. However, Lundborg refused to take anyone but Nobile. He argued that the plane could only take one survivor and the other seriously injured man was so heavy Lundborg was unsure he could take off. Nobile

2322-479: The polar regions receive further, contributing to the cold. Polar regions are characterized by extremely cold temperatures, heavy glaciation wherever there is sufficient precipitation to form permanent ice , short and still cold summers, and extreme variations in daylight hours, with twenty-four hours of daylight in summer, and complete darkness at mid-winter . There are many settlements in Earth's north polar region. Countries with claims to Arctic regions are:

2376-482: The search for the six crew who were swept away by the airship when it disintegrated, but he was ordered back to Rome with the others. Two hundred thousand cheering Italians met Nobile and his crew on arrival in Rome on 31 July. This show of popularity was unexpected by Nobile's detractors, who had been seeding the foreign and domestic press with accusations against him. An aggrieved Nobile was not shy about his complaints; in an interview with Benito Mussolini , he offended

2430-412: The ship reached the Pole and had already turned back toward Svalbard when it ran into a storm. On 25 May, the Italia crashed onto the pack ice less than 30 kilometres north of Nordaustlandet (Eastern part of Svalbard). Of the 16 men in the crew, ten were thrown onto the ice as the gondola was smashed; the remaining six crewmen were trapped in the buoyant superstructure as it ascended skyward due to loss of

2484-626: The time. In the same year Nobile worked with Gianni Caproni on the design the first Italian all-metal aircraft, the Caproni Ca.73 , and traveled to the United States to work as a consultant for Goodyear in Akron, Ohio . In 1923 he began the design of a new airship, the N-1, which was built for the United States, Spain, Argentina and Japan. He would travel himself to Japan in January 1927 to supervise

2538-547: The two World Wars . He is primarily remembered for designing and piloting the airship Norge , which may have been the first aircraft to reach the North Pole , and which was indisputably the first to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America. Nobile also designed and flew the Italia , a second polar airship; this second expedition ended in a deadly crash and provoked an international rescue effort. Umberto Nobile

2592-552: The war, and taught courses for aspiring officers. In 1918 he designed the first Italian-made parachute . He was director of the Factory from 1919 until 1927. He also lectured at the University of Naples, obtained his test pilot's license and wrote the textbook Elementi di Aerodinamica ( Elements of Aerodynamics ). During this time Nobile became convinced that medium-sized, semi-rigid airships would be superior to non-rigid and rigid designs, and focused on their design. One of

2646-497: Was airlifted to Søre Russøya , base camp of Swedish and Finnish air rescue efforts. When Lundborg returned alone to pick up a second survivor he crashed his plane on landing, and was trapped with the other five. Eventually, Nobile reached the Città di Milano , where, he later said, he was dismayed at the incompetence he found. His attempts to help co-ordinate the international rescue effort were blocked, and when he threatened to leave he

2700-564: Was born in Lauro , in the southern Italian province of Avellino , into a family of small landowners. His father Vincenzo, a civil servant, belonged to the cadet branch of an aristocratic family that had been stripped of its titles after the Italian unification over their continuing loyalty to the deposed Bourbons , and which had adopted the Nobile surname for that reason. After graduating from

2754-430: Was dismayed at the arrival of Richard E. Byrd 's American expedition, which also aimed to reach the Pole. On 9 May, after Byrd and Floyd Bennett departed in their Fokker F-VII and returned less than 16 hours later claiming to have overflown the Pole, Amundsen was one of the first to congratulate them. The Norge crew pressed ahead with their flight. On 11 May 1926, the Norge expedition left Svalbard. Fifteen and

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2808-418: Was founded on 1 March 1928. Previously, Norway's Svalbard research had been organized as the Norwegian state-supported Spitsbergen Expeditions, with roots dating back to 1906. With the establishment of the NSIU, Norwegian research activity in eastern Greenland increased. With Harald Sverdrup as the first director, the NPI's mandate included Antarctica and was considerably broader than that of its forerunner,

2862-496: Was permitted to remain in the US after Italy declared war on the United States, but declined the offer of US citizenship and opted to return to Europe in May, 1942. Following a brief stay in Rome he moved to Spain, where he remained until Mussolini was deposed, after which he made his definite return to his native country. In 1945, the Italian air force cleared Nobile of all charges related to

2916-564: Was placed under virtual arrest by Captain Romagna. His telegrams to the survivors still on the ice, as well as to various people involved in the rescue, were heavily censored. It was wrongly reported in Fascist Italian newspapers that his own evacuation was an obvious sign of cowardice. After 48 days on the ice floe, the last five men of his crew were rescued by the Soviet icebreaker Krasin . Nobile insisted that he wanted to continue

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