International Geophysical Year: Space Weather Impacts in February 1958

Abstract

AbstractSixty years ago the large February 1958 geomagnetic storm in the International Geophysical Year produced significant impacts on the electrical technologies of the day. The impacts of this major storm had considerable public exposure and interest. In the six decades since the large International Geophysical Year storm, the technology elements impacted during that storm—communications and power systems—continue to be employed, sometimes in new ways. Importantly, over the decades new human technologies that can be impacted by space weather processes have been invented and implemented. Continued progress is required in the research and understanding of space processes so as to design for, mitigate against, and operate through severe geomagnetic disturbances.