Research Stations and Scientific Cooperation

The International Geophysical Year of 1957–58, in which sixty-seven countries worldwide took part, drove the establishment of more than sixty temporary Antarctic stations and demonstrated that sustained, cooperative scientific work on the continent was logistically possible. To carry that cooperation forward after the IGY ended, the International Council of Scientific Unions founded the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 1958, which has since coordinated national Antarctic science programs, set common data standards, and advised the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings on environmental and scientific matters.