Sentinels of the Sun: Forecasting Space Weather

Watched and worshipped for millennia by cultures around the world, the Sun has rightly been seen as the source of weather, heat, and light. For thousands of years, it has also been seen as sacred, mysterious, and powerful.

Although we no longer worship the Sun, we study it for a different kind of survival. Space weather- phenomena caused by the Sun- can seriously affect the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems; it can also endanger human life and health.

This book takes a look at space weather and the Space Environment Center, a federal agency devoted to the study of the Sun. The numerous players in the story have brought this science to the forefront of space physics and solar forecasting because they understand that Earth systems will be increasingly affected by the Sun. This exciting time in the scientific understanding of our Sun will affect each of us who talks on a cell phone, finds our way with a GPS receiver, flies to the top of the world or beyond, or simply sits out under th northern lights pondering such beautiful displays.