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An Introduction to Space Weather, Mark Moldwin, Cambridge Univ Press, 2008, 134pp, £29.99/$55.00, ISBN 978-0-521-71112-8 [softback]

7th March 2011

The concept of “space weather” has been around for some years now and there are several examples of its detrimental effects on orbiting satellites and terrestrial infrastructure, such as electrical grids. One of the earliest recognised “anomalies”, as the satellite industry likes to call them, was that concerning the Galaxy IV satellite, which apparently failed as a result of excessive solar radiation in May 1998. It came to public attention because it carried some 90% of North America’s pager traffic and several major broadcast networks. The only bright side was that the general public stopped taking communications satellites for granted, at least for a while.

This is an undergraduate textbook “aimed at non-science majors”, according to the blurb. What this means in practice is that it describes and explains its subject without too many equations (there are a few, but they can be easily ignored if necessary).

The book should, however, also appeal to science students and working professionals who would benefit from an easy to read introduction to space weather. A first section discusses the key concepts, a brief history and the impacts of space weather on society, while successive sections deal with solar variability, the heliosphere and the Earth’s space environment. Later sections cover the impacts on our technology, as mentioned above, the problems for astronauts, and other space weather phenomena, such as the link with climate variability and the effects of asteroid and comet impacts. Thus, in a little over a hundred pages, this book give readers an excellent overview of the whole topic of space weather.

The volume is illustrated mainly with line drawings, but includes an 8-page colour photo section. Arguably one of the most interesting images is a shot of an electrical transformer melted by an overload produced by “the great geomagnetic storm of March 1989” (remember than one?). It’s hard to tell what it should have looked like, but it’s pretty clear that space weather can cause great damage here on Earth.

The book also has appendices of web resources, SI units and prefixes, along with a “historical bibliography” and an index. To anyone who did physics to A-level or equivalent, parts of the volume will seem comforting familiar, providing an excellent jumping-off point for the more specific topics covered.