International Geophysical Year
The International Geophysical Year (IGY; French: Année géophysique internationale), also referred to as the third International Polar Year, was an international scientific project that lasted from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958. It marked the end of a long period during the Cold War when scientific interchange between East and West had been seriously interrupted. Sixty-seven countries participated in IGY projects, although one notable exception was the mainland People's Republic of China, which was protesting against the participation of the Republic of China (Taiwan). East and West agreed to nominate the Belgian Marcel Nicolet as secretary general of the associated international organization.[1][2]
The IGY encompassed eleven
Both the
Events
The origin of the International Geophysical Year can be traced to the
On 29 July 1955,
Four days later, at the
To the surprise of many, the
The British–American survey of the Atlantic, carried out between September 1954 and July 1959, discovered the full length of the
World Data Centers
Although the 1932 Polar Year accomplished many of its goals, it fell short on others because of the advance of World War II. In fact, because of the war, much of the data collected and scientific analyses completed during the 1932 Polar Year were lost forever, something that was particularly troubling to the IGY organizing committee.[16] The committee resolved that "all observational data shall be available to scientists and scientific institutions in all countries." They felt that without the free exchange of data across international borders, there would be no point in having an IGY.[17]
In April 1957, just three months before the IGY began, scientists representing the various disciplines of the IGY established the World Data Center system. The United States hosted World Data Center "A" and the Soviet Union hosted World Data Center "B". World Data Center "C" was subdivided among countries in Western Europe, Australia, and Japan.[17] Today, NOAA hosts seven of the fifteen World Data Centers in the United States.
Each
Antarctica
The IGY triggered an 18-month year of Antarctic science. The
Australia established its first permanent base on the Antarctic continent at Mawson in 1954. It is now the longest continuously operating station south of the Antarctic Circle.[25] Davis was added in 1957, in the Vestfold Hills, 400 miles (640 km) east of Mawson. The wintering parties for the IGY numbered 29 at Mawson and 4 at Davis, all male. (Both stations now have 16 to 18 winterers, including both sexes.) As a part of the IGY activities, a two-man camp was installed beside Taylor Glacier, 60 miles (97 km) west of Mawson. Its principal purpose was to enable parallactic photography of the aurora australis (thus locating it in space), but it also permitted studies of Emperor penguins in the adjacent rookery.
Two years later, Australia took over the running of Wilkes, a station built for the IGY by the United States. When Wilkes rapidly deteriorated from snow and ice accumulation, plans were made to build Casey Station, known as Repstat ("replacement station"). Opened in 1969, Repstat was replaced by present-day Casey station in 1988.
Halley Research Station was founded in 1956 for the IGY by an expedition from the (British) Royal Society. The bay where the expedition set up their base was named Halley Bay, after the astronomer Edmond Halley.
France contributed Dumont d'Urville Station and Charcot Station in Adélie Land. As a forerunner expedition, the ship Commandant Charcot of the French Navy spent nine months of 1949/50 at the coast of Adelie Land. The first French station, Port Martin, was completed 9 April 1950, but destroyed by fire the night of 22 to 23 January 1952.[28]
Belgium established the
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station was erected as the first permanent structure at the South Pole in January 1957. It survived intact for 53 years, but was slowly buried in the ice (as all structures there eventually sink into the icy crust), until it was demolished in December 2010 for safety reasons.[30]
Arctic
Ice Skate 2 was a floating research station constructed and staffed by U.S. scientists. It mapped the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Zeke Langdon was a meteorologist on the project. Ice Skate 2 was planned to be staffed in 6 month shifts, but due to soft ice surfaces for landing some crew members were stationed for much longer. At one point they lost all communications with anyone over their radios for one month except the expedition on the North Pole. At another point the ice sheet broke up and their fuel tanks started floating away from the base. They had to put pans under the plane engines as soon as they landed as any oil spots would go straight through the ice in the intense sunshine. Their only casualty was a man who got too close to the propeller with the oil pan.[31]
Norbert Untersteiner was the project leader for Drifting Station Alpha and in 2008 produced and narrated a documentary about the project for the National Snow and Ice Data Center.[32]
Participating countries
The participating countries for the IGY included the following:[33]
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Burma
- Canada
- Ceylon
- Chile
- Colombia
- Cuba
- Czechoslovakia
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France
- Germany, East
- Germany, West
- Ghana
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea, North
- Malaya
- Mexico
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Peru
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Rhodesia and Nyasaland
- Romania
- South Africa
- Soviet Union
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- United Kingdom
- Kenya
- Tanganyika
- Uganda
- United States
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Vietnam, North
- Vietnam, South
- Yugoslavia
Legacy
In the end, the IGY was a resounding success, and it led to advancements that live on today. For example, the work of the IGY led directly to the Antarctic Treaty, which called for the use of Antarctica for peaceful purposes and cooperative scientific research. Since then, international cooperation has led to protecting the Antarctic environment, preserving historic sites, and conserving the animals and plants. Today, 41 nations have signed the Treaty and international collaborative research continues.
The
This
The fourth International Polar Year on 2007–2008 focused on climate change and its effects on the polar environment. Sixty countries participated in this effort and it included studies in the Arctic and Antarctic.[36]
In popular culture
- "Grammy Award for song of the year.[38]
- The IGY is featured prominently in a 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. Compilations of the strips were published by Simon & Schuster SC in 1958 as G.O. Fizzickle Pogo and later Pogo's Will Be That Was in 1979. The run was also included in Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips Vol. 5: Out of This World at Home published by Fantagraphics in 2018.[citation needed]
- Jazz saxophonist and composer Gil Mellé recorded a "Dedicatory Piece to the Geo-Physical Year of 1957" for his album Primitive Modern, released by Prestige Records.
- The IGY was featured in a cartoon by Russell Brockbank in Punch in November 1956.[39] It shows the three main superpowers UK, USA and USSR at the South Pole, each with a gathering of penguins which 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, while the Russian camp resembles a gulag, with barbed-wire fences and the penguins are made to march and perform military maneuvers.[citation needed]
- The Alistair MacLean novel Night Without End takes place in and around an IGY research station in Greenland.
- The IGY features in two episodes of the 1960–61 season of the documentary television series Expedition!: "The Frozen Continent" and "Man's First Winter at the South Pole".
See also
- International Biological Program
- International Year of Planet Earth
- List of Antarctic expeditions
- Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera
- Operation Moonwatch
- Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station
References and sources
- References
- ^ "Rockets, Radar, and Computers: The International Geophysical Year". NOAA Celebrates 200 Years. 24 October 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
- ^ a b Everts, Sarah (2016). "Information Overload". Distillations. 2 (2): 26–33. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ "International GeoPhysical Year".
- ^ "IGY History". ESRL Global Monitoring Division. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ WMO, Archives. "The International Geophysical Year, 1957–1958". Archived from the original on 2016-07-02. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
- ^ "Korolev, Sputnik, and The International Geophysical Year".
- .
- ^ "The International Geophysical Year". National Academy of Sciences. 2005. Archived from the original on 21 May 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ Matthew Kohut (Fall 2008). "Shaping the Space Age: The International Geophysical Year". ASK Magazine (32). NASA. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
- ^ "This Month in Physics History". APS News. 16 (9). October 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- ^ Hagerty, James C. (29 July 1955). "The White House: Statement by James C. Hagerty" (PDF) (Press release). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Archived from the originalon 2020-02-16. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
- ISBN 0-385-49253-7.
isbn:0385492537.
- ^ Winter, Frank H; van der Linden, Robert (November 2007), "Out of the Past", Aerospace America, p. 38
- US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. May 12, 2017.
- OCLC 949912296.
- ^ PMID 17794348.
- ^ "World Data System (WDS)". Archived from the original on 2013-06-05. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
- ^ Ad hoc Strategic Committee on Information and Data. Final Report to the ICSU Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (PDF). ICSU. 2008. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-25. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
- ISBN 978-0-930357-85-6. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
- ^ "Constitution of the International Council for Science World Data System (ICSU WDS)" (PDF). Retrieved 12 June 2013.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "International science community to build a 'World Data System'". itnews. 28 Oct 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
- ^ Cheryl Pellerin. "International Science Council to Revamp World Data Centers". Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
- ^ US National Academies. "The International Geophysical Year". Archived from the original on 7 June 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
- ^ "History of Australian Antarctic stations". www.antarctica.gov.au. Retrieved 2019-03-03. [verification needed]
- ^ Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration. "ISAS – International Geophysical Year/ History of Japanese Space Research".
- ^ Solar, Igor I. (2012-11-21). "Taro and Jiro — A story of canine strength and tenacity". Digital Journal. Retrieved 2021-03-25.
- ^ "French IGY – Following the Data of the International Geophysical Year (1957–8)". Archived from the original on 2015-12-18. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
- ^ "Belgium Federal Science Policy and Polar Secretariat – Home". Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
- ^ "South Pole's first building blown up after 53 years". OurAmazingPlanet.com. 2011-03-31.
- ^ Harrington, Jon. "Shared Photographs". Google Photos. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
- ^ "International Geophysical Year, 1957-1958: Drifting Station Alpha Documentary Film, Version 1".
- ^ Nicolet, M. "The International Geophysical Year 1957/58" (PDF). World Meteorological Organization. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ^ "Introduction to ICSU World Data System". ICSU. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
- ^ "ICSU World Data System". ICSU. Archived from the original on 30 December 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
- ^ "International Polar Year 2007–2008". Retrieved 17 July 2013.
- ^ "Lyrics – The Nightfly (1982) – D. Fagen Solo". Steelydan.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
- ^ "25th Grammy Awards list of nominees". grammy.com. 1983. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ "Russell Brockbank Cartoons". magazine.punch.co.uk. PUNCH Magazine Cartoon Archive. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- Sources
- University of Saskatchewan Archives Archived 2020-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
- 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
- Fraser, Ronald. (1957). Once Round the Sun: The Story of the International Geophysical Year, 1957–58. London, England: Hodder and Stroughton Limited.
- Schefter, James (1999). The Race: The uncensored story of how America beat Russia to the Moon. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385492537.
- Sullivan, Walter. (1961). Assault on the Unknown: The International Geophysical Year. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
- Wilson, J. Tuzo. (1961). IGY: The Year of the New Moons. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
External links
- Documents regarding the International Geophysical Year, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
- "IGY On the Ice", produced by Barbara Bogaev, Soundprint. 2011 radio documentary with John C. Behrendt, Tony Gowan, Phil Smith, and Charlie Bentley.
- The Papers of Robert L. Long Jr. at Dartmouth College Library