Heroic Efforts - The Changing Arctic Environment: The Arctic Messenger - page 80

The next IPY took place 50 years later in 1932-1933. This time, 40 countries particip-
ated. As was the case with its predecessor, research was focused on some specific issues -
this time, mainly related to atmospheric science, including geomagnetism and the nature of
the jet stream.
The third IPY took place over the period of 1957-1958. It was actually given a dif-
ferent name: the International Geophysical Year (IGY). This title was a more accurate de-
scription of the research focus. Like its predecessors, it focused almost exclusively on geo-
physical phenomena. These included the nature of cosmic rays, the aurora, geomagnetism,
ionospheric and atmospheric physics, meteorology, seismology, gravity, oceanography and
solar activity.
Sixty-seven countries participated in the IGY, but more importantly (at ages twelve
and thirteen), so did I! Every second night through the winter of 1957-1958, my school
friends and I spent 30 minutes staring at the sky. We had been recruited as (involuntary)
“volunteers” by our science schoolmaster to help with a project designed to find out the
cause of the aurora borealis (northern lights). We were equipped with illustrations of the
aurora and a duplicated sheet to record what we had seen. Each of us was assigned a peri-
od of the evening to do our duty for science. In order to escape light pollution from the
town, only boys who lived in places without street lighting were recruited. The only excuse
for not going out was a cloudy sky. We had to be very careful because we knew that three
other neighbouring schools were taking part in the project and that our science master was
checking up on us by randomly taking time slots himself. The aurora is not a common sight
over Ashford (in south-east England). I so much wanted to see it during that year, but I
had to wait until the 1970s before seeing this amazing spectacle for myself. Involvement of
children in the IGY was an idea carried forward in IPY 2007-2008.
The achievements of the IGY included the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts
and of the mid-ocean submarine ridges, which helped support the then-emerging theory of
plate tectonics. And it led to the modern explanation of the aurora!
Fifty years later, in 2007-2008, came the most recent IPY. I was still working for the
Canadian government during the very early planning stages. At that time, it was far from