Publisher Description

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Special Publications Series. From the Sun demystifies auroras, magnetic storms, solar flares, cosmic rays and other displays of Sun-Earth interactions. The authors, all well-known figures in space science, explain how solar eruptions affect human technology and society in articles intended for the nonspecialist and adapted from Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union. One of the most appealing features is a comprehensive glossary of the terminology necessary to read almost any volume on Sun-Earth connections.

Author Biography

Steven T. Suess is a physicists with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and sn adjunct professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He has studied the Sun and its influence on the solar system for almost his entire career.
Bruce T. Tsurutani is a space plasma physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. His research covers studies of the Sun, interplanetary spacem and planetary magnetospheres, including plasma instabilities, wave-particle interactions, nonlinear waves, and aurora.

Table of Contents

Preface
Steven T. Suess and Bruce T. Tsurutani  v Aurora
Syun-Ichi Akasofu 1 The Earth's Magnetosphere
S. W. H. Cowley  13 Radiation Belts
James A. Van Allen  23 Plasma Waves and Instabilities
S. Peter Gary  29 The Ionosphere and Upper Atmosphere
A. D. Richmond  35 Red Sprites and Blue Jets: Transient Electrical Effects of Thunderstorms on the Middle and Upper Atmospheres
D. D. Sentman and E. M. Wescott  45 Magnetic Storms
Bruce T. Tsurutani and Walter D. Gonzalez  57 The Human Impact of Solar Flares and Magnetic Storms
Jo Ann Joselyn 67 The Solar Wind
B. E. Goldstein  73 Solar Flares
David Rust  81 Solar Flare Particles
R. P. Lin  91 Solar Irradiance Variations and Climate
Peter Foukal  103 The Solar Dynamo
David H. Hathaway 113 Cosmic Rays
J. R. Jokipii  123 Anomalous Cosmic Rays: Interstellar Interlopers in the Heliosphere and Magnetosphere
R. A. Mewaldt, A. C. Cummings, and E . C. Stone 133 The Outer Heliosphere
W. I. Axford and Steven T. Suess 143 Glossary  153

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