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Historical Aspects of The History of Geophysics: Volume 1 approaching target date for the completion of the study of the data acquired during the Historical Aspects of Second Pol~r Year: December 1950. It was in this atn10sphere that, in January 1950, I visited the Departlnent of Terrestrial the IGY Magnetisn1 and the National Bureau of ~tan-, danis in Washington, D.C. before spendIng h months in California. Just afterward, in fact Marcel Nicolet and assesses the value of the knowledge ac­ on April 5, 1950, Lloyd Berkner n1ade the quired in tern1S of the contribution it makes Secretary C;eneral first suggestion about the possibility of orga­ to the welfare of mankind. Special Comnlittee for the International nizing a series of polar years separated by in­ In the history of science, the First Interna­ Geophysical Year tervals of 25 years. At a n1eeting of about 20 tional Polar Year (1882-1883) was the first scientists (Bates, Berkner, Chapnlan, £lvey, major event in which the fundan1ental con­ Editor's lVote.' During the weel~ or September Kaplan, Nicolet, Roach, Tuve, Van cept was Inultidisciplinary cooperation on an Allen, ... ) in May 1950, held at Inyokern, 25-()ctober 3, 1982, an exhibition was organized international scale. vVeyprecht, who con­ at the Academ,,' Palace in Brussels as Belgium's China Lake, in the California desert, there' ceived the idea of such a prc~ject, was obliged was some discussion about various aspects of celebration or-the 100th annili ersarJ or the First over a period of several years to defend his Polar Year,·tJze 50th annlI1ers(uJ ol the Second research in the upper atmosphere, during proposals and to prolnote then1. It was not which ideas put forward by several partici­ Polar Year, and the 25th anniversruJ ol the Inter­ until a year after his death, and in spite of national Geophysical Year. It was dedicated to past pants were borne in mind. the outbreak of the war in the Balkans, that a 19~)O and present geojJhysical activities in order to sfun!' These ideas were raised again in .J uly sn1all group of geophysicists af the period at a meeting of about 200 scientists who par­ the !Jromises oltl1ture work. Fi1 1e organizatim~s launched this first great peaceful enter1?rise. ticipated in a 'Conference on the Physics of took part in the exhibition.' the Aeronomy I nstztute, In the \,vake of the heroic epoch of the First the Antarctic Research Committee, the IVatimwl the Ionosphere,' convened by A. H. Waynick Polar Year, there followed n1any inlportant of the Ionosphere Research Laboratory of GeogratJhic Institute, thf i\J et~orological I ~zstitutc, developn1ents in scientific instruInentation, and the Royal ObsenJatory. King Baudouln gave Pennsylvania State University. On this occa­ and great in1proveInents in conln1unicatio~s sion, some of those ready to go to Brussels his sponsorship and visited the exhibition. within and between the continents. It was In The follov..1ing article is b(l.Sed on a sjJeech deli"u­ were in favor of officially subInitting the idea 1927 that J. Giorgi, a meteorologist, n1ade the of a new 'international polar year' to the ered b'V A1arcel IVicolet at the inauguration ceremo­ suggestion that the 50th anniversary ~f the Mixed COlnn1ission on the Ionosphere, which n'V on"Sfptember 25. The sjJeech, entitled 'Les ten­ First Polar Year should be celebrated In 1932. was due to n1eet in this 'Palace of the .Acade­ a;zts et les aboutissants de tAnnfe GfophJsique In­ This led to the creation of a Special Comn1is­ mies' September 4-6, 1950. Thus Brussels tfrn.ationale, ' was translated IF'" C. AI. IHinnis, sion which was nlade responsible for the Sec­ becaIne the focal point, 25 years ago, for the URSI SecretarJ General Eme;"itus. ond Polar Year (1932-1933); its President project which caIne to be known as the Inter­ was D. laCour, Director of the Meteorological national C;eophysical Year, 1957-1958. Geophysics is a branch of science which has Service in Denmark. The preparations for The Mixed COInInission (E. V. (later Sir successfully integrated Inany different areas the event were confronted with n1any diffi­ Edward) Appleton as Chairn1an and a n1en1­ of research into a coherent whole. It repre­ culties arising out of the world econon1ic cri­ bership of Aono, Berkner, Beynon, Booker, sents the synthesis of \'arious broad fields of sis of the 1930s; indeed on several occasions Burrows Maeda, Hagihara, Hamada, Her­ knowledg~ relating to both the pa~t and the doubts were expressed about whether it was bays, Ko~ani, L~jay, ~1artyn, Massey, l\1enzel, present, and this provides a baSIS for specu­ wise to continue, but finally these were over­ Nicolet, Shapley, and Waynick) forwarded its lating about the future. Since geophysICal re­ come by the tenacity and the persuasive pow­ proposals to the scientific unions represe.nted search nlust be pursued over the whole of ers of laCour. in it. These were approved by all the unIons, our planet, into the n10st distant continents, In the end, in spite of the practical prob­ including the IUGG, \vhich held its General and even across Antarctica, it calls for the ap­ lems encountered, the program for the Sec­ Assen1blv in Brussels in 19.51 at the invitation plication of all nlan's resources. It r~con­ ond Polar Year was carried out. U nfortunate­ of the B~lgian National Conunittee for C;eod­ structs the past through a process of reap­ ly, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 re­ esy and Geophysics. In May 19.52 the Inter­ praisal, reflection, and discussion; it eluci­ sulted in the suspension of nonnal national Council of Scientific Unions (lCSU) dates the present and thereby leads us not international scientific relations. After the fornled the Special Conllnittee for the Inter­ only to in1age, to n1easure, and to study dis­ end of the war, in 1946, the Conference of national C;eophysical Year, usually known un­ tant events, but also to understand better the Directors of the International Meteorological der the initials of its French title: CSAC;I. mysteries of nature. Indeed, knowledge is the Organization, at its n1eeting in London, de­ The members designated to represent the k~y which geophysics uses to open doors cided to dissolve all its Con1missions. Howev­ unions were: Berkner and Beynon (URSI), leading toward the future. C;'eophysics n1ust er, at its meeting in Paris in July 1946, the Coulomb and Laursen (lUGG), Norlund and also be accepted as a branch of fundamental International Meteorological Committee cre- Nicolet (IAU), and Wordie (IGU). Van research in which concerted action is an es­ ated the Polar Year Liquidating ConlInission; Mieghem was later enlisted to represent the sential feature; it ren1ains in contact with soci­ this body was n1ade responsible for continu­ World Meteorological Organization. ety by conlbining research and developn1ent ing the analysis of the data, which had al­ l~he first official meeting of CSAGI was at­ ready begun before the \iVaI', and for com­ tended by the three senior representatives, pleting the task by December 1950. Berkner, CouloInb, and Nicolet, and took In this connection it is in1portant to recall place in Brussels on October 13, 19.52. Marcel Nicolet received his Ph.D. in astrophysics that the President of the Liquidating Con1­ Through our Secretary, £. Herbays, we ap­ at Liege University in 1937. Since 1951 he has mission was John Flen1ing, President of the pealed to the national academies of sciences been associated with the Ionosphere Research Labo­ International Association of 'Terrestrial Mag­ adhering to ICSU, as well as to the interested ratory of the Pennsylvania State University, where netisIn and Electricitv fron1 1934 to 1948, unions and the World l\1eteorological OrganI­ he is an adjunct professor of aeronomy. From 1953 and' also Director of Ithe Departnlent of Ter­ zation (WMO), for their collaboration. At the to 1960 he was Secretary-General of the IGY. In restrial 1\fagnetisn1 of the Carnegie Institu­ same time, a request for financial support 1960 he was director of Belgium's National Space tion of vVashington. Thanks to his worldwide was made to the United Nations Educational, Research Center and in 1965 became first director reputation, Flenling was able to stinllIla~e Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNES­ of the Belgian Aeronomy Institute. He was presi-' geophysicists into thinking about ~\'hat f.uture CO). dent of the International Association of Geoma~ne­ actions should be taken so as to gIve a fresh The CSAC;I met in this Palace from June tism and Aeronomy from 1963 to 1967. A retned iInpetus to their branch of science. 'The range 30 to July 3, 1953, at the invitation of our professor of external geophysics at Br~se~ Univer­ of new techniques already available, including Academies, and by this time 30 national acad­ sity and ofspace physics at Liege Unzverszty, he has the first rockets carrying scientific instru­ emies had already agreed to support the con­ more than 200 publications in the fields of astro­ Inents, led theln to give high priority to n1ak­ cept of the International Geophysical Year. physics, aeronomy, and meteorology and is a. mem­ ing observations in the third dimensio~. The Before the IGY began, general assemblies ber or foreign associate of numerous professlOnal need to think in terms of a new comnlItment were convened in 1954, 1955, and 1956 in societies and academies. of some kind was further strengthened by the Ronle, Brussels, and Barcelona respectively; 44 Copyright American Geophysical Union History of Geophysics: Volume 1 45 the final Assembly was held in Moscow in uted to the IGY participating conlmittees be­ neously in Washington, D.
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