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THERMAL DISCOMFORT IN THE ANTARCTIC AND SUBANTARCTIC
Author(s) -
Budd G. M.,
Hicks K. E.,
Lugg D. J.,
Murray L. G.,
Wigg D. R.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1969.tb103395.x
Subject(s) - trunk , head (geology) , cold climate , shivering , cold weather , clothing , oceanography , geography , environmental science , geology , meteorology , medicine , archaeology , ecology , surgery , biology , geomorphology
Thermal comfort, clothing, activity and environmental conditions were recorded on more than 2,000 occasions by a total of 101 men working outdoors, at three Australian stations in Antarctica and at Macquarie Island in the Subantarctic. The results were remarkably similar in the dry‐cold, continental climate of Antartica and the wet–cold, oceanic climate of Macquarie Island. Men were uncomfortable in 13% of the observations for the trunk, 15% of those for the head and feet, and 20% of those for the hands. Discomfort of the trunk was due to heat and cold in equal proportion, but sweating was more frequent than shivering. In the colder weather, men wore more clothing, but the frequency of discomfort from cold nevertheless increased, to 13% of the observations for the trunk, 25% of those for the feet, 33% of those for the hands and 36% of those for the head. Men varied in the kind and degree of thermal discomfort they experienced. Only 17 of them always felt comfortable on the trunk. Of the remainder, 21 were sometimes too hot but never too cold, 22 were sometimes too cold but never too hot, and 41 were sometimes one and sometimes the other.