The International Heliophysical Year is a UN-sponsored scientifically driven international program of scientific collaboration to understand external drivers of planetary environments and universal processes in solar-terrestrial-planetary-heliospheric physics. The IHY will focus on advancements in all aspects of the heliosphere and its interaction with the interstellar medium. This effort culminated in the "International Heliophysical Year" (IHY) in 2007-2008. The IHY concluded in February, 2009, but was largely continued via the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI)
The term "Heliophysical" was coined to refer specifically to this activity of studying the interconnectedness of the entire solar-heliospheric-planetary system. It is a broadening of the concept of "geophysical," extending the connections from the Earth to the Sun and interplanetary space. On the 50th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year, the 2007 IHY activities will build on the success of IGY 1957 by continuing its legacy of system-sides studies of the extended heliophysical domain.
The IHY 2007 has been planned to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957-1958, one of the most successful international science programs of all time. The IGY was a broad-based and all-encompassing effort to push the frontiers of geophysics, which resulted in tremendous progress in space physics, Sun-Earth connections, planetary science and the heliosphere in general. The tradition of international science years began almost 125 years ago with the first International Polar Year and international scientific studies of global processes at the North Pole in 1882-1883. The IHY has received substantial support from the United Nations, and various space agencies around the world.
The IHY has three primary objectives:
The IHY team has also identified the following science goals for 2007-2008: