¿What dis COST 238 really achieve? = ¿Qué consiguió realmente COST 238?

COST238 was a four-year research project of the European Commission to develop improved European ionospheric maps and models. Summaries of the objectives and principal technical results obtained have been published (Bradley, 1990, 1993) and a full description of the work carried out together with adopted formulations appear in the Final Report (Bradley and Vernon, 1999). The present account examines the back-ground to the creation of the project, considers its impact on the various groups in the different countries that took part in the work, and shows how, along with successor COST Actions, it has served as a kernel in stimulating and fostering co-ordinated ionospheric research among workers in both Member States and the wider intemational community