This volume is a comprehensive, up-to-date account of solar astrophysics and how our perception and knowledge of this star have evolved as mankind has elucidated ever more of its mysteries. The emphasis of this second edition of The Sun from Space is on the last decade, which includes the findings of the SOHO, Ulysses, and Yohkoh solar spacecraft missions over an entire 11-year cycle of solar activity, the results of the RHESSI solar spacecraft launched during this interval, the early findings of the recently launched Hinode and STEREO solar spacecraft, and the ACE and Wind spacecraft that extend our investigations of the Sun to its varying input to Earth over the past ten years.

Klappentext

The First Edition of The Sun from Space, completed in 1999, focused on the early accomplishments of three solar spacecraft, SOHO, Ulysses, and Yohkoh, primarily during a minimum in the Sun's 11-year cycle of magnetic activity. The comp- hensive Second Edition includes the main ndings of these three spacecraft over an entire activity cycle, including two minima and a maximum, and discusses the signi cant results of six more solar missions. Four of these, the Hinode, RHESSI, STEREO, and TRACE missions were launched after the First Edition was either nished or nearly so, and the other two, the ACE and Wind spacecraft, extend our investigations from the Sun to its varying input to the Earth. The Second Edition does not contain simple updates or cosmetic patch ups to the material in the First Edition. It instead contains the relevant discoveries of the past decade, integrated into chapters completely rewritten for the purpose. This provides a fresh perspective to the major topics of solar enquiry, written in an enjoyable, easily understood text accessible to all readers, from the interested layperson to the student or professional.

Inhalt

Instruments for a Revolution.- Discovering Space.- Exploring Unseen Depths of the Sun.- Solving the Sun's Heating Crisis.- Winds Across the Void.- Our Violent Sun.- Space Weather.- References.