International Geophysical Year

(geophysics) An internationally accepted period, extending from July 1957 through December 1958, for concentrated and coordinated geophysical exploration, primarily of the solar and terrestrial atmospheres. Abbreviated IGY.

International Geophysical Year, eighteen months (1 July 1957–31 December 1958) of geophysical observations by about 30,000 scientists and technicians representing more than seventy countries. The extension of this program for an additional year (until 31 December 1959) was officially called International Geophysical Cooperation (IGC), but that period is generally included in the term "International Geophysical Year" (IGY).The IGY and IGC attempted simultaneous observations in eleven fields of earth, near-earth, and solar physics: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, glaciology, gravity, ionospheric physics, latitude and longitude determination, meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and solar activity. The IGY oversaw the launching of the first artificial earth satellites, inaugurating the age of space exploration.

International cooperation in science began in the 1830s with the networks of scientific observers organized by Karl Friedrich Gauss in Germany to observe and record geomagnetic changes, and by W. Whewell and Sir John W. Lubbock in England to make tidal observations. Because observations in high northern latitudes could not be made routinely, Lt. Karl Weyprecht of the Austrian Navy organized the First International Polar Year in 1882–1883, during which scientists and military men from ten European countries and the United States operated twelve stations in the Arctic and two in the Antarctic. The American stations were at Point Barrow, Alaska, and at Grinnell Land in the Canadian Arctic. The rescue of the latter's observers (under army Lt. A. W. Greely) is famous in the annals of polar exploration. Fifty years later the Second International Polar Year (1932–1933) saw fourteen countries (twelve from Europe, plus the United States and Canada) occupy twenty-seven stations, again mostly in the Arctic. Of the scientific publications that resulted, more came from the United States than from any other country.

By 1950, the rapid advances in geophysics and the need to restore the international network of scientists that had been ruptured by World War II led Lloyd V. Berkner of the United States to propose another international polar year to be held only twenty-five years after the previous one, in 1957–1958.The international scientific bodies to whom he referred his proposal, organized under the umbrella International Council of Scientific Unions, broadened it to include the entire earth; thus the IGY replaced its predecessors' limited programs with a comprehensive program of observations in fields where data recorded simultaneously at many places could yield a picture of the whole planet. Scientists occupied more than 2,500 stations worldwide at a cost of about $500 million.

Two of the most prominent achievements of the IGY were the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts and the calculation of a new, pear-shaped model of the shape of the earth. Both these results came from rocket-launched satellites, the IGY's most spectacular new feature. So successful was the IGY that it has been followed by a number of other cooperative research programs, including the International Year of the Quiet Sun (1964–1965), the International Hydrological Decade (1965–1975), and the International Decade of Ocean Exploration (1970–1980).

Bibliography

International Council of Scientific Unions. Annals of the International Geophysical Year. London, New York: Pergamon Press, 1957–1970. Sullivan, Walter. Assault on the Unknown: The International Geophysical Year. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.

Wilson, J. Tuzo. I.G.Y.: The Year of the New Moons. New York: Knopf, 1961.

The International Geophysical Year (IGY) was an international scientific effort that lasted from July 1, 1957, to December 31, 1958.

The IGY encompassed eleven Earth sciences: aurora and airglow, cosmic rays, geomagnetism, gravity, ionospheric physics, longitude and latitude determinations (precision mapping), meteorology, oceanography, seismology and solar activity.

Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union launched artificial satellites for this event; the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 of October 1957 was the first successful artificial satellite. Other significant achievements of the IGY included the discovery of the Van Allen Belts and the discovery of mid-ocean submarine ridges, an important confirmation of plate tectonics.^[1]

Contents 1 Events 2 Antarctica 3 IGY representations in popular culture 3.1 Donald Fagen album 3.2 Walt Kelly's Pogo 3.3 Punch cartoon 4 See also 5 References & Footnotes 6 External links

Events

International Polar Years were held in 1882–1883, 1932–1933, and 2007-2009.

In March 1950, at a gathering of eight or ten top scientists (including Lloyd Berkner, S. Fred Singer, and Harry Vestine) in James Van Allen's living room, someone suggested that with the development of new tools such as rockets, radar and computers, the time was ripe for a worldwide geophysical year.

From the March 1950 meeting, Lloyd Berkner and other participants proposed to the International Council of Scientific Unions that an International Geophysical Year (IGY) be planned for 1957—58—during the maximum solar activity.^[2]

April 11, 1957, the U.S. Navy tests a satellite to an altitude of 126 mi.^[3]

October 4, 1957, the USSR launches the world's first artificial satellite: Sputnik 1.

November 8, 1957, U.S. Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy instructs the U.S. Army to use a modified Jupiter-C rocket to launch a satellite as part of the IGY.^[4]

January 31, 1958, the U.S. launches Explorer 1.

July 29, 1958, the U.S. creates NASA.

Antarctica

Memorial Postal Stamp of International Geophysical Year by Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Japan, 1957.Drawing Japanese Research Ship Sōya and Penguin.

IGY triggered an eighteen-month year of Antarctic science. The International Council of Scientific Unions, a parent body, broadened the proposals from polar studies to geophysical research. More than 70 existing national scientific organizations then formed IGY committees, and participated in the cooperative effort.

Halley Research Station was founded in 1956, for IGY, by an expedition from the Royal Society. The bay where the expedition set up their base was named Halley Bay, after the astronomer Edmond Halley.

In Japan, The Antarctic exploration was planned in 1955 by Monbushō and Science and technology Agency. Japan Maritime Safety Agency offered ice breaker Sōya as the South Pole observation ship. The first Antarctic observation corps commanded by Takeshi Nagata left Japan in 1956, arriving at Antarctica on January 29, 1957. Showa Station was the first Japanese observation base on Antarctica and was set up on same day.

IGY representations in popular culture

Donald Fagen album

"I.G.Y. (International Geophysical Year)" is a track on Steely Dan founding member Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly. The song is sung from an optimistic viewpoint during the IGY, and features references to then-futuristic concepts, such as solar power (first used in 1958), Spandex (invented in 1959), space travel for entertainment, and undersea international high speed rail.^[5] The song peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Walt Kelly's Pogo

The International Geophysical Year is featured prominently during 1957–1958 run of Pogo comic strips by Walt Kelly. The characters in the strip refer to the scientific initiative as the "G.O. Fizzickle Year." During this run, the characters try to make their own contributions to scientific endeavours, such as putting a flea on the moon. A subsequent compilation of the strips was published by Simon & Schuster SC in 1958 as G.O. Fizzickle Pogo and later Pogo's Will Be That Was in 1979.

Punch cartoon

The IGY was featured in a cartoon by Russell Brockbank in Punch magazine in November 1956. It shows the three main superpowers UK, USA and USSR at the South Pole, each with a gathering of penguins who they are trying to educate with "culture". The penguins in the British camp are being bored with Francis Bacon; in the American camp they are happily playing baseball, whilst the Russian camp resembles a gulag, with barbed-wire fences and the penguins are made to march and perform military maneuvers.

See also

• List of Antarctic expeditions
• International Biological Program
• Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station
• International Year of Planet Earth

References & Footnotes

1. ^ ESRL Global Monitoring Division
2. ^ The International Geophysical Year, 1957c1958
3. ^ E. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1915–1960, p. 85.
4. ^ van der Linden, Frank H (November 2007), "Out of the Past", Aerospace America: p38 
5. ^ SteelyDan.com page: "The Nightfly lyrics".

• University of Saskatchewan Archives
• History of ionosondes, at the U.K.'s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
• History of arctic exploration
• James Van Allen, From High School to the Beginning of the Space Era: A Biographical Sketch by George Ludwig

External links

• Documents regarding the International Geophysical Year, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

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