The 23rd cycle
Subtitle: learning to live with a stormy star
By: Sten F. Odenwald.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 207
Subjects: Solar activity -- Environmental aspects
Other titles: Twenty-third cycle
Description: "The 23rd Cycle traces the previously untold history of solar storms and the ways in which they were perceived by astronomers - and even occasionally covered up by satellite companies. Odenwald shows how solar flares, which were once a curious nuisance, can come to pose a potential worldwide disaster in light of our accelerating dependence upon sophisticated technologies - from computers and cell phones to the thousands of space satellites and complex, high-speed cables that are wired into homes, businesses, government databases, and air traffic control systems. What once caused telegraph machines to give off sparks, or people in their living rooms to puzzle over a spontaneous change of channels, could now blanket the earth in darkness and chaos. The 23rd Cycle includes a history of the record of auroral sightings, accounts of blackouts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, industries sensitive to solar storms, and radiation and health issues."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-201) and index.
Table of contents: title: A; title: conflagration of storms --; title: Dancing in the light --; title: "Hello? Is anyone there?" --; title: Between a rock and a hard place --; title: "We're not in Kansas anymore! --; title: They call them "satellite anomalies" --; title: Business as usual --; title: Human factors --; title: Cycle --; title: Through a crystal ball.