International heliophysical year: a program of global research continuing the tradition of previous international years Original Research Article

In 1957 a program of international research, inspired by the International Polar Years of 1882–1883 and 1932–1933, was organized as the International Geophysical Year (IGY) to study global phenomena of the Earth and geospace. The IGY involved about 60,000 scientists from 66 nations, working at thousands of stations from pole to pole, in an effort to obtain simultaneous, global observations on Earth and in space. There had never been anything like it before. The 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year will occur in 2007. We propose to organize an international program of scientific collaboration for this time period called the International Heliophysical Year (IHY). Like its predecessors, the IHY will focus on fundamental global questions of Earth science.