The International Meteorological Organization (IMO) finds its origins in the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress. The Congress tasked a Permanent Meteorological Committee to draft the rules and statutes of an international meteorological organization to facilitate the exchange of weather information across national borders. The non-governmental IMO had transformed into a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1951, to become the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics.

James Van Allen was an American space physicist who was at the origin of satellite research on planetary magnetospheres in the Solar System. He worked at the University of Iowa and devoted his entire scientific career to instrument development and research for missions such as Explorer 1, Voyager 1 and 2, and Cassini. His research was key to the discovery of the radiation belts around the Earth that bear his name - the Van Allen radiation belts.

Friedrich Heinrich Alexander, Freiherr von Humboldt (14 September 1769 Berlin - 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, naturalist of world importance and co-founder of geography as an empirical science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt.

He was interested in the fields of physics, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, volcanology (he refuted 'neptunianism'), botany (he founded the field of phytogeography), zoology, climatology (isotherms, climate), oceanography and astronomy, but he was also interested in questions of economic geography, ethnology and demography. He was characterised by interdisciplinary thinking that respected the natural sciences and the humanities in their respective research methods and specifically linked them together. Comparative analysis was an important method of his work, and he drew his knowledge from many sources. He explored the interrelationship of all the natural sciences.

His research journeys took him through Europe to Central and South America, as well as Central Asia, and he published his notes and findings in thirty volumes, which were published over the following years and gained great popularity. In addition, while producing his magnificent work, he maintained an extensive scientific correspondence around the world (more than 30,000 letters) and maintained personal contacts in scientific and social circles.

Humboldt's seminal work is the five-volume Cosmos (1845-1862), in which he summarized the results of his lifelong research and attempted to describe all known scientific aspects of the workings of nature, addressing questions of the origin and evolution of the universe.

Other information:

• WULF, Andrea. Invention of nature. John Murray Press, 2016. 496 s. ISBN 9781848549005.
• Alexander von Humboldt. (25. 11. 2023). Wikipedia.org

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. It was agreed on 16 September 1987, and entered into force on 1 January 1989. Since then, it has undergone nine revisions, in 1990 (London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992 (Copenhagen), 1993 (Bangkok), 1995 (Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), 1998 (Australia), 1999 (Beijing) and 2016 (Kigali). As a result of the international agreement, the ozone hole in Antarctica is slowly recovering. Climate projections indicate that the ozone layer will return to 1980 levels between 2040 (across much of the world) and 2066 (over Antarctica). Due to its widespread adoption and implementation, it has been hailed as an example of successful international co-operation. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that "perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date has been the Montreal Protocol". In comparison, effective burden-sharing and solution proposals mitigating regional conflicts of interest have been among the success factors for the ozone depletion challenge, where global regulation based on the Kyoto Protocol has failed to do so. In this case of the ozone depletion challenge, there was global regulation already being installed before a scientific consensus was established. Also, overall public opinion was convinced of possible imminent risks.

Source: wikipedia.com

Vilho Väisälä (September 28, 1889 – August 12, 1969) was a meteorologist who specialised in research on the upper layers of the atmosphere; he gained an international reputation particularly for his development of the radiosonde. In 1936 Väisälä founded Vaisala Ltd, which soon attained the level of a genuinely peak-technology institution and has developed into the world's leading company in its field.

MAGION 2 was launched on September 28, 1989 to an orbit with a perigee of about 500 km and an apogee of 2500 km. The satellite's attitude was stabilized by spin and magnetic field. It measured plasma waves, ionospheric plasma parameters and the Earth's magnetic field. It was also intended to measure the response of the ionosphere to a plasma cannon mounted on the ACTIVE programme's main satellite (INERKOSMOS-24).