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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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for a new polar year (Chapman, 1953).<br />

Over the next two years, an organizational structure<br />

based on the ICSU Unions was put in place.<br />

Also, during the boreal summer of 1951, ICSU invited<br />

the World Meteorological Organization (<strong>WMO</strong>), the<br />

successor of IMO, to join the new initiative. <strong>WMO</strong> responded<br />

positively and urged that the observational<br />

program should be expanded to tropical and temperate<br />

regions, thus encompassing the whole planet. The<br />

shift to a new global vision was triggered by Danish<br />

meteorologist Johannes Egedal, who in his talk at the<br />

Assembly of the <strong>International</strong> Association of Terrestrial<br />

Magnetism and Electricity in Brussels (23 August<br />

1951) argued vigorously that “observations . . . should<br />

be taken all over the earth’’, and especially at the tropical<br />

and southern non-polar regions. It was Egedal<br />

who suggested to Chapman that the global character<br />

of the program could best be shown by changing its<br />

name. Chapman, always a savvy planner, duly agreed.<br />

In October 1952, the ICSU General Assembly formally<br />

endorsed the new initiative under the name ‘<strong>International</strong><br />

Geophysical <strong>Year</strong> (IGY/AGI)/Année Géophysique<br />

<strong>International</strong>e’ (Chapman, 1953; Jones, 1959). It became<br />

a joint initiative of ICSU and <strong>WMO</strong>, with a larger<br />

role played by ICSU.<br />

On 30 June 1953, four years prior to the official<br />

starting date of IGY, the short-term ‘preparatory<br />

committee’ was transformed into a full-size Comité<br />

Special de l’Année Géophysique <strong>International</strong>e (CSAGI)<br />

of 13 members, with Chapman as President, Berkner<br />

as Vice-President and Marcel Nicolet (1912–1996) as<br />

Secretary General. 27 It met that same day in Brussels<br />

for its first session. The composition of CSAGI reflected<br />

the new structure of IGY. Unlike the planning bodies<br />

for IPY-1 and IPY-2, whose members were national<br />

delegates, CSAGI comprised representatives of<br />

five international scientific unions of ICSU, 28 ex<br />

officio members from ICSU and <strong>WMO</strong>, and its three<br />

executive officers, Chapman, Berkner and Nicolet.<br />

CSAGI also designated its member scientists as ‘world<br />

Box 4 List of Countries Participating in the <strong>International</strong> Geophysical <strong>Year</strong><br />

(67 countries)<br />

Argentina<br />

Australia<br />

Austria<br />

Belgium<br />

Bolivia<br />

Brazil<br />

Bulgaria<br />

Burma<br />

Canada<br />

Ceylon<br />

Chile<br />

China (Taipei)<br />

Colombia<br />

Cuba<br />

Czechoslovakia<br />

Denmark<br />

Dominican Republic<br />

East Africa<br />

Ecuador<br />

Egypt<br />

Ethiopia<br />

Finland<br />

France<br />

German Democratic Republic<br />

German Federal Republic<br />

Ghana<br />

Greece<br />

Guatemala<br />

Hungary<br />

Iceland<br />

India<br />

Indonesia<br />

Iran<br />

Ireland<br />

Israel<br />

Italy<br />

Japan<br />

Korea, Democratic Republic<br />

Malaya<br />

Mexico<br />

Mongolian Peoples Republic<br />

Morocco<br />

Netherlands<br />

New Zealand<br />

Norway<br />

Pakistan<br />

Panama<br />

Peru<br />

Philippines<br />

Poland<br />

Portugal<br />

Rhodesia, Southern<br />

Rumania<br />

Spain<br />

Sweden<br />

Switzerland<br />

Thailand<br />

Tunisia<br />

Union of South Africa<br />

U.S.S.R.<br />

United Kingdom<br />

United States of America<br />

Uruguay<br />

Venezuela<br />

Viet Nam, Democratic Republic<br />

Viet Nam, Republic<br />

Yugoslavia<br />

Source: www7.<br />

nationalacademies.<br />

org/archives/igy_<br />

countries.html<br />

P l a n n I n g a n d I m P l e m e n t I n g I P Y 2 0 0 7–2 0 0 8 15

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