Alexander von Humboldt has been given the opportunity of setting on foot an extensive system of research in combination with his diligent personal observations, through the meeting at Berlin, on September 18, 1828, of a newly formed scientific association, of which the Prussian naturalist and explorer had been elected president.

His appeal to the Russian government in 1829 leads to the establishment of a line of magnetic and meteorological stations across northern Asia after Humboldt accepts the invitation of Tsar Nicholas to travel to Russia to conduct physiographic and geologic studies of the Urals and Siberia.