Carl Størmer

This biography summarizes the seminal contributions to auroral and space science of Carl Størmer (1874 - 1957), the first to develop precise photographic methods to calculate heights and morphologies of diverse auroral forms during four solar cycles.

Unfolds the complexity and beauty of aurora borealis for a general audience in easy to understand prose Demonstrates how a dedicated scientist could resolve mysteries of space using just groundbased observations Provides a realistic basis for understanding how the space-age world we live in came to be Singular access to family archives allowed the authors to write the first and only biography of Carl Størmer Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Auteur
Alv Egeland is an Emeritus Professor Professor in space physics/cosmic physics at the University of Oslo. He was Director of the Norwegian Institute of Cosmic Physics 1968-72. Prof. Egeland received several awards including The Order of Merit in Gold from the King of Norway, in 2002, and is author or co-author of 17 books.
Dr. William J. Burke got his Ph.D. in 1971 from MIT. During his scientific career he lead several teams for satellite experiments. He authored or co-authored about 300 scientific publications.

Contenu

Preface.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Carl Størmer's Origins.- 3 Størmer's Auroral Studies.- 4 Mother-of-Pearl-, Noctilucent Clouds, Comets and Metors.- 5 Botanical Interests.- 6 Mathematical Analyses.- 7 Cooperation and conflict with Kristian Birkeland.- 8 Størmer the Man.- 9 The Størmer Family.- 10 Størmer's Accomplishments: In Retrospect.- 11 Carl Størmer's publications, biographies, and other sources. Appendix 1 Størmer's Trajectory Analyses.- Appendix 2 Auroral Height and Position Orientations.- Bibliography.- Index of names.