In 1957 — the year we moved to West Windsor — most of the nations of the world agreed to conduct cooperative scientific studies of the earth and the space around it. The objective was to learn as much as possible about the earth itself and its environment in the solar system. The time period of the effort was to be called the International Geophysical Year (IGY), and it was to last from mid-1957 until the end of 1958. That time period was chosen partly because of the anticipated period of increased sunspot activity and the resulting emission of particle radiation toward the earth. This would permit the study of particle interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere. Other topics under study were the general properties of the upper atmosphere and the characteristics of the ice cover in Antarctica.
To be successful such studies required the cooperation of the entire international community, regardless of location and, especially, politics. Thus both the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to do their part in a truly international effort. A total of 46 countries agreed to take part, and by the time the IGY was over 67 countries had been involved.
The scientific studies brought forth the latest in new ideas and equipment for how to detect and measure many heretofore suspected phenomena, such as plate tectonics. Studies supported the idea, for example, that South America and Africa had once been part of a single land mass, and that between them there was a mid-Atlantic ridge. The slow drift of Africa to the east and South America to the west under the force of the rising ridge between them has resulted in the continental formations we have today.
Also under study was the idea that India had once been separate from the rest of Asia, and that its movement to the north had resulted in the creation of the Himalaya Mountains. The idea of plate tectonics was controversial, of course, and some years later one skeptic gave me a T-shirt with “Stop Plate Tectonics” printed on it.
Among the new devices developed during the IGY were the first artificial earth satellites. The Soviet Union launched the first two, Sputniks I and II, in late 1957, and the U.S. launched the third, Explorer I, in early 1958. After the launch of Sputnik I the newspapers were full of suggestions on how to observe it as it passed overhead.
In West Windsor, where there was little light reflected from the ground in those days, some people claimed to have seen it. But it was later explained that what you could actually see from the ground with the naked eye was a portion of the booster rocket and not the satellite itself. I looked but never saw a thing. Today, 56 years later, more than 100 new satellites are launched each year, and there are more than 15,000 man-made objects in orbit around the Earth, according to American Scientist magazine.
While Sputnik I escaped my view, there was one phenomenon during the IGY that I am definitely sure of having seen. From our house in Grovers Mill the view to the north through a large picture window was unobstructed by trees and other houses since the land there had been farmed until only a few years before. As a result we could see all the way to the local horizon, the ridge that formed the southern bank of the Millstone River about a half-mile away. Beyond that there was nothing but sky. At night, when the moon wasn’t out, it was really dark — there were no street lights at all, nor was there any glow from shopping malls or other commercial centers. There were none in the area then. The view of the northern constellations was terrific.
One evening, in February I think, I was looking out the picture window and among the stars I saw a strange “glittering” in the sky just above the horizon. Although I knew about the IGY and the satellite launchings by then, I did not know that a maximum in sunspot activity was anticipated and that that was one of the reasons to have the IGY at that particular time. But there was the evidence, and I hadn’t had to go to the arctic to see it.
I watched for a while longer, and the glittering continued until the earth’s rotation moved the impact area of the solar particles on the atmosphere out of range of my view. The next night I looked again, and there it was. It went on like that for a week or more. Every clear night, I could see it: the “aurora borealis” I had been told about as a child was right there in front of me, and the view from West Windsor was spectacular.
Today, because of the large amount of man-made illumination that reflects from the atmosphere, seeing the “aurora” or northern lights this far south is very unusual even on a very clear night.
