An Introduction to Space Weather

Description

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.

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'.

'Professor Moldwin lays out the complex topic of space weather in a clear and comprehensive way, with a masterful educational touch that keeps the reader engaged in every chapter. The second edition of this foundational book comes at the perfect time, as the space economy is rapidly expanding and the topic of space weather becomes more pertinent than ever before.' Jacob Bortnik, University of California, Los Angeles 'From solar explosions to their impact on society, this wonderful text uses understandable prose to introduce students with widely different backgrounds to the physics of the local universe and to how the ever-changing connections between Sun and Earth affect society. For the second edition, the diverse supplemental material - ranging from how science works to the foundations of physics - has been expanded, while a newly developed companion webpage leads to beautiful images, illustrative videos, and ready-to-use lecture slide sets.' Karel Schrijver, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center 'A very fine introduction to the science and applications of the broad topic of solar-terrestrial physics (space weather) by Professor Moldwin, an eminent scholar who has personally contributed substantially to the field. In this substantially revised edition, the clever division of each chapter into descriptive and more quantitative portions will make this volume the preeminent academic introduction to the subject.' Louis J. Lanzerotti, New Jersey Institute of Technology 'We have used the first edition of An Introduction to Space Weather for several years in Penn State's cross-listed 'Space Weather' course; it reaches our students well, regardless of their diverse backgrounds. This new edition brings welcome updates (including a brand new chapter on forecasting, educational and other supplementary content toward the end of each section, as well as a companion website) while remaining concise and affordable.' Timothy Kane, The Pennsylvania State University 'I have used Professor Moldwin's book in Embry-Riddle's second-year undergraduate class 'Introduction to Space Weather'. Professor Moldwin's book has worked as a great and highly motivating introductory text for important space weather phenomena. It has been developed with pedagogy and student learning in mind. The book is well written, clear, and captivating. The freshmen students liked the conceptual nature of the text, so the content was easy to grasp with only some introductory physics/math background. I plan on continuing to use this book when teaching this class next time.' Heidi Nykyri, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University