Geophysical Datascapes of the Cold War: Politics and Practices of the World Data Centers in the 1950s and 1960s

Aronova, Elena

doi:10.1086/694094

Cited by 26 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…36–37; GARP JOC, 1969 , p. 15). However, Aronova (2017) argues that the IGY was more visionary than practical, at least in its immediate effects, since its comprehensive data collection efforts were stymied by their storage in analog format on microfilm, a format unusable in numerical models running on digital computers. Even if impractical, the IGY was global in conceptual scope and an important precursor to later attempts to study and understand the planet as an interconnected system.…”

Section: Payson Stevens and Internetworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988

Barton

2022

Soc Stud Sci

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As part of its efforts to find new relevance in the early 1980s, NASA formed the Earth System Sciences Committee (ESSC) to develop a large-scale Earth science research program that would use satellites and computer modeling to study the planet as an integrated system with interconnections between the land, air, water, and biota. Called Earth system science (ESS), the project was conceived on the scale of the U.S. moon missions. Like the Apollo program, it would need enormous government funding to implement. Yet, the project was proposed just as government science funding was contracting. Conscious of the changing political economy of science, the ESSC attempted to build scientific, political, and public support for its project by using promotional techniques akin to the branding efforts more commonly identified in corporate marketing that were themselves changing in scope and importance in the 1980s. These techniques formed part of the ESSC’s broader management strategy to promote ESS. The ESS brand was developed around the ideals of an interconnected ‘Earth system’, the significance of interdisciplinary research, and environmental concern. Though ESS failed to gain widespread traction, an unintended consequence of this branding was the communication and entrenchment of the concept of the ‘Earth system’. Today, this concept provides crucial theoretical scaffolding that unifies interdisciplinary Earth science research, including climate change science.

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Section: Payson Stevens and Internetworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988

Barton

2022

Soc Stud Sci

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“…World data centres in Australia, Japan, the Soviet Union, the United States, and various countries in western Europe collected records. 88 These repositories ensured the longevity and accessibility of IGY data, which numerous scientists eventually put toward conservationist ends.…”

Section: Global Cooperation and The Igy Benchmarkmentioning

confidence: 99%

A benchmark for the environment: big science and ‘artificial’ geophysics in the global 1950s

Goossen

2020

Journal of Global History

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Security concerns during the early Cold War prompted United States strategists to solicit worldwide assistance in studying Earth’s physical environment. Comprehensive geophysical knowledge required cooperation between researchers on every part of the planet, leading practitioners to tout transnational earth science – despite direct military applications in an age of submarines and ballistic missiles – as a non-political form of peaceful universalism. This article examines the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year as a powerful fulcrum in the transfer of ideas about Earth’s global environment from Western security establishments to conservationists worldwide. For eighteen months, tens of thousands of researchers across every continent pooled resources for data collection to create a scientific benchmark for future comparisons. Illuminating Earth as dynamic and interconnected, participants robustly conceptualized humanity’s emergence as a geophysical force, capable of ‘artificially’ modifying the natural world. Studies of anthropogenic geophysics, including satellites, nuclear fallout, and climate change, conditioned the global rise of environmentalism.

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“…Porter's cautious study of ecological data sharing mirrors other studies by historians of science and technology, especially those focusing on the Cold War era [4]. Much of this scholarship has revealed a mélange of challenges, barriers, and opportunities for data sharing by posing three questions: First, what makes data sharing possible?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Scientific Cooperation: Supporting Circumpolar Permafrost Monitoring and Data Sharing

Bouffard

Uryupova²,

Dodds

et al. 2021

Land

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While the world continues to work toward an understanding and projections of climate change impacts, the Arctic increasingly becomes a critical component as a bellwether region. Scientific cooperation is a well-supported narrative and theme in general, but in reality, presents many challenges and counter-productive difficulties. Moreover, data sharing specifically represents one of the more critical cooperation requirements, as part of the “scientific method [which] allows for verification of results and extending research from prior results”. One of the important pieces of the climate change puzzle is permafrost. In general, observational data on permafrost characteristics are limited. Currently, most permafrost data remain fragmented and restricted to national authorities, including scientific institutes. The preponderance of permafrost data is not available openly—important datasets reside in various government or university labs, where they remain largely unknown or where access restrictions prevent effective use. Although highly authoritative, separate data efforts involving creation and management result in a very incomplete picture of the state of permafrost as well as what to possibly anticipate. While nations maintain excellent individual permafrost research programs, a lack of shared research—especially data—significantly reduces effectiveness of understanding permafrost overall. Different nations resource and employ various approaches to studying permafrost, including the growing complexity of scientific modeling. Some are more effective than others and some achieve different purposes than others. Whereas it is not possible for a nation to effectively conduct the variety of modeling and research needed to comprehensively understand impacts to permafrost, a global community can. In some ways, separate scientific communities are not necessarily concerned about sharing data—their work is secured. However, decision and policy makers, especially on the international stage, struggle to understand how best to anticipate and prepare for changes, and thus support for scientific recommendations during policy development. To date, there is a lack of research exploring the need to share circumpolar permafrost data. This article will explore the global data systems on permafrost, which remain sporadic, rarely updated, and with almost nothing about the subsea permafrost publicly available. The authors suggest that the global permafrost monitoring system should be real time (within technical and reasonable possibility), often updated and with open access to the data (general way of representing data required). Additionally, it will require robust co-ordination in terms of accessibility, funding, and protocols to avoid either duplication and/or information sharing. Following a brief background, this article will offer three supporting themes, (1) the current state of permafrost data, (2) rationale and methods to share data, and (3) implications for global and national interests.

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Geophysical Datascapes of the Cold War: Politics and Practices of the World Data Centers in the 1950s and 1960s

Cited by 26 publications

References 29 publications

Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988

Branding the Earth: Selling Earth system science in the United States, 1983-1988

A benchmark for the environment: big science and ‘artificial’ geophysics in the global 1950s

Scientific Cooperation: Supporting Circumpolar Permafrost Monitoring and Data Sharing

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