The International Geophysical Year (Igy), 1957-58
Overview
The International Geophysical Year (IGY) was prompted by a lack of concise data about Earth and its land, oceans, and atmosphere. Post-World War II technology had become available to launch a worldwide research effort to solve questions concerning the physical processes, patterns, and cycles of the forces of nature—the geophysics of the earth. During the IGY, global cooperative research expanded knowledge of Earth itself, the lower and upper atmosphere, the oceans, the polar regions, and near space, where the first satellites orbited successfully.
Background
Through the nineteenth century marine and polar exploration had highlighted the earth as a natural laboratory for research and brought new emphasis to the development of modern Earth sciences—geology, meteorology, and oceanography. The mystery of the polar regions stimulated the first cooperative, multinational scientific effort, the International Polar Year (1882-1883), but it was hardly international and consisted of failed expeditions. The world's scientific community tried again during the Depression but many countries could not honor their commitments.The end of World War II, however, brought a new technological age.
In 1950 a group of geophysicists met at the home of American physicist James Van Allen (1914- ). Present were the world-renowned English geophysicist Sydney Chapman (1888-1979) and two other Americans, physicist and engineer Lloyd Berkner (1905-1967) and geophysicist S.
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