141 



coordinated satellite observations and meshed global networks of 

 ground level instrumentation with space based measurements. 



The IMS is an example of successful global scientific 

 cooperation in an enterprise that drew on an investment of 

 hundreds and millions of dollars, without political interference 

 in the scientific plan and without disputes over the individual 

 national investments. It was charged as an international effort 

 only for the small portion of administrative costs of scientific 

 reporting and data management. This unusual set of conditions 

 was possible because each major participant was already engaged 

 in its own parochial program with its own resources when the 

 value of international cooperation was recognized and the 

 opportunity grasped. 



At the time of conceptualization of the IMS, research in 

 space physics was reported and discussed on the international 

 scene under the aegis of the Interunion Commission on Solar 

 Terrestrial Physics, later to become the ICSU special committee 

 for Solar Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP). About 1969, it was 

 apparent that NASA, the European Space Research Organization 

 (ESRO), and the USSR were independently programming 

 multi-satellite missions to study the earth's outer space. At 

 the heart of the problem of understanding this dynamic 

 environment was the need for simultaneous measurements across 

 the many boundaries and regimes of magnetospheric space and to 

 trace the connections between effects at ground level and the 



