III. The Scientific Program 



The scientific program proposed for the IGY was both ambitious 

 and complex. Having agreed upon the scientific rationale for the 

 undertaking, however, scientists quickly organized and implemented 

 the program, subject only to several seemingly unavoidable — but 

 not overly restrictive — political constraints. 



The Scientific Rationale 



The scientific rationale for undertaking the IGY 25 years sooner 

 than had been anticipated was based upon a number of factors. First, 

 since the world's scientific "storehouse" of data concerning man's 

 physical environment was considered largely exhausted, it was 

 maintained that the scientific community could not wait until 1982 

 (50 years after the SPY) to replenish this storehouse. 61 In particular, 

 many scientists considered that further progress in the geophysical 

 sciences was being hampered by lack of information that could only be 

 obtained by a coordinated, worldwide cooperative data-taking venture. 



Second, soon after the SPY there had been an unprecedented 

 development of new research tools in the geophysical sciences. These 

 included radiosonde balloons capable of investigating 90 percent of 

 the earth's atmosphere, and rockets (developed during World War II) 

 capable of investigating the remaining upper 10 percent, as well as 

 the fringes of outer space. New cosmic ray recorders, spectroscopes, 

 and other instruments were available to permit in-depth investigation 

 of the nature and composition of the aurora, the newly-discovered 

 "air-glow", the sun and its corona, and the earth's magnetic field. 

 Furthermore, electronic computers had sufficiently evolved to enable 

 efficient handling of the vast amounts of data that a massive worldwide 

 scientific effort would generate. 



Third, geophysicists had become increasingly fascinated by the 

 earth's remote polar areas. The Arctic was of great interest from the 

 standpoint of radio communications and weather forecasting. The 

 Antarctic remained the largest unexplored landmass on the earth's 

 surface. With scientists encircling the globe in unprecedented numbers, 

 the IGY offered an excellent opportunity for obtaining information 

 regarding these remote polar regions. 



Fourth, and finally, a period of intense solar activity had been 

 predicted for 1957-58. The actual 18-month period finally chosen for 

 the IGY represented an attempt to span, as completely as possible, 

 the anticipated period of maximum sunspots so that the effect of solar 

 storms upon the earth could be investigated. Such storms were 

 particularly interesting to the scientific community because sunspot 

 activity had been at a minimum during the SPY. This prediction of 

 high solar activity turned out to be gratifyingly accurate: sunspot 



«' Wallace W. Atwood, Jr.. "The International Geophysical Year: A Twentieth Century Achievement In 

 International Cooperation," Department of State Bulletin 35 (Dec. 3, 1956), p. 880. 



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