The Great Assault on Nature's Secrets
As IGY Ends, Its President Reviews the Pro ct's Accomplishments
By MAHENDRA PAREKH
THE YEAR 1958 marks a great
event in the history of man-
kind, a gigantic step forward in
the continuing quest by man to
reveal the secrets of the earth, the
atmosphere and the sun. For sci-
entists all over the world this is-
the International Geophysical
Year.
During the period of July 1, 1957
to the close of this year, the sun is
passing through one of its recur-
rent states of enhanced eruptive
setivit', a pernn of a maximum
number of sunspots, solar promi-
nnce and flares.
This maximum activity of the
sun, which occurs approximately
every eleven years, was indeed ther~
deciding factor in the choice of p
1957-58 as a favorable time for
an all-out world-wide study of
the current problems of geophys-
On July 1. 1957, scientists of
over 60 countries be 'an a con-
centrated study of the problems
of man's physical envionment,
seeking answers to many of the
open questions which still bar the
way to its proper understanding.
Rocket Experts Prepare for Upper Atmosphere Research
ALMOST 2,000 stations were set <">-.--_
up for simultaneous world- set in motion the project of the
wide observation of atmospheric International Geophysical Year,
winds, of the earth's magnetic 1957-58.
field, of the aurora borealis and
aurra ustali, o th imactof The committee held several
aurora australis, of the impact of planning conferences during the
cosmic rays on the earth's canopy next five ,years Finally in Sep-.
of air, and of the fact of the sun. tember, 196, int e spacious
These stations will be manned bl , of the s aions
until the end of this year at a building of the Spanish National
total cost to all participating Research Council n Barcelona,
countries of nearly $300 million. came the last planning confer-
ence. At this time the Russians
A nestion may arise: What do announced their ,own satellite
all these terms signify? Where project, so designed as to align
does all this money come from? with American techniques; fifty-
Why such an intensified attack four nations were now lined up
and what will be its consequences? for IGY
In other words, just what is the
IGY and who are all the people H FIRST ESSENTIAL was to
behind it. TH
.ssh. y t ensure a 24-hour watch on the
hi' is the story as told by the sun. Thirty-eight solar observa-
President of the IGY, Prof. Syd- torics, girdling the earth, 'cre
ney Chapman. Prof. Chapman has made ready for intensive observa-,
been at the University since Sep- tion of the sun,
tember, 1957, as a visiting lec-
turer in aeronautical engineering. The watch on the sun makes it
possible to detect sunspots, pro-
T ALL BEGAN one fine spring minences, outbursts of radio-noise
n190 during an in- and, most important of all, solar'
evening in 15 uiga n lrs hs ra oge ffr
formal talk among scientists in flares, those great tongucs of fire
the May'and home of James Van that are believed to have a marked
effect on radio communications
Allen, an Ame'lan physict tandsidosrcataypcoc '
and other earthly phenomena - i
educator.
e et of an IGY came to including northern lights.
Lloyd Berkner, President of the For the first time in history
International Council of Scientific simultaneous observatories in me-
Unions (ICSUt. Among the coim. teoeology, geomagnetism, and ion-
pany was Sydney Chapman, a ospherics were lined up, strung
well-known mathematician, physi- like beads from pole to pole along
cist sand asterier from En - three strategic meridians of the
land. These two men sparked the globe. Some of these were well
beginning of an undertakii, the established observatories, others
ovewhelming succes of which were easy enough to access, but
has even surprised them. quite a few demanded considerable
Prof. Chapman and Berkner, in pioneerin, work in their establish-
150, put tlhe ball squarely in the mentt and operation.
court of the ICSU. Meeting in
Washinton, D.C. in the fall of N TIlE ARCTIC there ae
1951, the ICSU gave sanction to many permanent scientific ob-
the formation of a committee to servatories. The equatorial belt
needed more attention particularly
Mahendra Parekh is a stu- because of the enormous stretches
dent in the College o f En- of open ocean, which have lonely
islands over thousands of miles
in eering. He is fronn India of the equatorial girdle as the
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