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Our space age technology enables global communication, navigation, and power distribution that has given rise to our 'smart', interconnected and spacefaring world. Much of the infrastructure modern society depends on, to live on Earth and to explore space, is susceptible to space weather storms originating from the Sun. The Second Edition of this introductory textbook is expanded to reflect our increased understanding from more than a dozen scientific missions over the past decade. Updates include discussions of the rapidly expanding commercial space sector, orbital debris and collision hazards, our understanding of solar-terrestrial connections to climate, and the renewed emphasis of human exploration of the Moon and Mars. It provides new learning features to help students understand the science and solve meaningful problems, including some based on real-world data. Each chapter includes learning objectives and supplements that provide descriptions of the science and learning strategies to help students and instructors alike.
List of contents
1. What is Space Weather?; 2. The Variable Sun; 3. The Heliosphere; 4. Earth's Space Environment; 5. Earth's Upper Atmosphere; 6. Technological Impacts of Space Storms; 7. Space Weather Modeling and Forecasting; 8. The Perils of Living in Space; 9. Other Space Weather Phenomena.
About the author
Mark Moldwin is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. An award-winning teacher, his primary research interests are magnetospheric, ionospheric, and heliospheric plasma physics, and pre-college space science education and outreach. He is a Past-President of the American Geophysical Union's Education Section, a former Editor-in-Chief of Reviews of Geophysics and among his numerous honors received the 2016 AGU's Waldo E. Smith Award for his 'extraordinary service to geophysics'.
Summary
Space weather concerns how the Sun influences Earth and its near-space environment, including human technology and society. This expanded Second Edition of an introductory textbook reflects increased understanding from recent scientific missions and adds new learning features to help students understand the science and solve meaningful problems.
