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Poor visibility on the 3 d prior to the sinking of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s vessel, Endurance, during November 1915, hampered navigator Frank Worsley’s attempts to record its position. Thus, whilst the wreck was located in the Weddell Sea in March 2022, the drift path of Endurance during its final 3 d at the surface remained unknown. We used data from a modern meteorological model to reconstruct possible trajectories for this unknown portion of Endurance’s journey.

The Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) is an important phenomenon in tropical meteorology first discovered in the early 1970s by Roland Madden and Paul Julian. In this paper, Roland Madden relates the story of developments in theory, observations, and analysis techniques in the 1960s that led to that discovery.

Gauß, Weber and Humboldt initiated the systematic observation of the Earth’s magnetic field in Germany. The first geomagnetic observatories were installed in Munich, Berlin and Wilhelmshaven. The Potsdam Magnetic Observatory was officially opened on 1 January 1890. Due to anthropogenic disturbances, a sub-observatory was installed in 1907 in the village of Seddin. The launch of the DC-powered service of the Berlin suburban railway system in 1928 terminated the observations in Potsdam.

This article describes the international seismological cooperation at the start of the last century and how this cooperation changed due to WWI. These changes were the direct reasons leading to the foundation of the Deutsche Seismologische Gesellschaft (DSG) in 1922, which changed its name to the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG) 2 years later. It then describes the further development of the relationship between German geophysicists and their colleagues until the start of WWII.

Due to anthropogenic disturbances on the Potsdam Magnetic Observatory, a sub-observatory was installed in 1907 in the village of Seddin. Only variometer recordings were performed there. The launch of the DC-powered service of the Berlin suburban railway in 1928 influenced the observations in Potsdam and Seddin. The absolute measurements were moved to Seddin, and a new observatory was planned in Niemegk. Seddin Observatory closed in 1932.

This paper describes the details of the Japan's participation in the EISCAT Radar Scientific Association as the 7th associate country approved in 1995, emphasizing strong collaboration with Norwegian scientists and the EISCAT Radar Scientific Association towards the realization of the Svalbard second antenna. Also described is a brief summary of Japanese EISCAT-related scientific achievement, comprehensive scientific collaborations so far between Japan and Europe, and hopes for EISCAT_3D.

Historical observations are important, even for modern science (such as space research). The Clementinum in Prague was one of the first observatories where systematic measurements of the geomagnetic field commenced. We focus on the beginning of these Prague measurements, which were introduced by Karl Kreil in 1839. We describe archived data from that time, some details about the main instrument for observing magnetic storms and the first magnetic mapping in Bohemia.

New Zealand’s first tide-gauge-based sea level measurements were made in 1773 during James Cook’s second voyage of discovery to the South Pacific. The paper examines the quality of those measurements by comparison with tide predictions based on modern information from locations close to the sites of the 1773 observations. The results show that the quality of their work was of at least a high standard. Whilst of little scientific value today, these measurements are historically significant.

Environmental measurements were undertaken by Reinhold Reiter (1920–1998) around Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps for 4 decades. This included measurement sites on the Zugspitze and Wank mountains as well as the use of an instrumented cable car between the Eibsee and the Zugspitze summit. The Mount Wank site operated between 1 August 1972 and 31 December 1983, and the hourly data values – including atmospheric electricity quantities – for this site have been recovered.

The foundation of the Societas Meteorologica Palatina was the most important step toward a physical consideration of meteorology. The organization was exemplary for later observational networks. The data were printed in 12 volumes of ephemerides, being for a long time the most important and reliable database for scientific research. This data pool is not only of historical interest, but it is also used in modern research in many fields.