Synopsis of the historical development of Schumann resonances

Abstract

The life and work of Winfried Otto Schumann and the historical development of the main ideas leading to the hypothesis of Earth‐ionosphere cavity electromagnetic oscillations are reviewed. The so‐called Schumann resonances are a set of frequencies of electromagnetic waves in the natural cavity formed by a planet's (moon's) surface and its ionosphere, in the extremely low frequency (ELF) range, caused by natural electrical activity of the planet (moon) and/or its atmospheric environment. Additionally, the reception of his work by the contemporary scientific community as well as the experimental evidence for the postulated ELF resonance oscillations is described.