International Geophysical Year

The International Geophysical Year was a coordinated global scientific program conducted from July 1957 to December 1958, involving researchers from dozens of countries.

Sputnik 1: The first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Its launch during the program opened the satellite era and drew worldwide attention to space research.
International Polar Year: A multinational scientific campaign coordinating observations in polar regions. Its two earlier campaigns provided the institutional model for the program.
Sydney Chapman: A British mathematician and geophysicist who chaired the program’s international organizing committee. He led the committee responsible for coordinating participating nations and research fields.
Antarctic Treaty System: The international framework governing peaceful activity and scientific cooperation in Antarctica. The program’s cooperative fieldwork helped create conditions for the 1959 treaty.
Explorer 1: The first United States satellite, launched in 1958, which detected the Van Allen radiation belts. Its instruments made a major discovery from one of the program’s satellite missions.
First International Polar Year: A coordinated polar research campaign conducted from 1882 to 1883. It established the precedent of synchronized observations by multiple nations.
Roger Revelle: An American oceanographer who directed the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He helped organize oceanographic research within the program.
Space Age: The period of human activity in space that began with artificial satellites and spaceflight. The program’s satellite experiments helped launch this era of exploration and research.
Van Allen radiation belts: Regions of charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field. Explorer 1 measurements during the program revealed these belts around Earth.
Second International Polar Year: A coordinated polar research campaign conducted from 1932 to 1933. Its expanded scientific cooperation directly informed the later global program.

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