[4][5][6][7] The discovery of solitary waves in general is attributed to John Scott Russell in 1834,[8] with their first mathematical conceptualization being finalized in 1871 by Joseph Boussinesq[9] (and later refined and popularized by Lord Rayleigh in 1876[10]).
For solitary waves outside of media, which ESWs are classified asa, the first major framework was likely developed by Louis de Broglie in 1927,[11] though his work on the subject was temporarily abandoned and was not completed until the 1950s.
Electrostatic structures were first observed near Earth's polar cusp by Donald Gurnett and Louis A. Frank using data from the Hawkeye 1 satellite in 1978.
[12] However, it is Michael Temerin, William Lotko, Forrest Mozer, and Keith Cernyb who are credited with the first observation of electrostatic solitary waves in Earth's magnetosphere in 1982.
[13] Since then, a wide variety of magnetospheric satellites have observed and documented ESWs, allowing for analysis of them and the surrounding plasma conditions.