Solar Activity Observations and Predictions

Now that man himself has begun to penetrate into the space environment, there has developed a certain sense of urgency to understand the disturbances created by solar activity. In addition to the disruption of radio communications, the sun can create hazards to men and their space equipment during the strongest outbursts of x-ray, ultraviolet, and particle emissions. Volume 24 in this series, for example, noted the deterioration of thermal properties of space vehicles as a result of the solar radiations.

This volume (the thirtieth in the series) brings together a set of papers by prominent researchers in the interdisciplinary field of solar-terrestrial physics. The invitations for contributions asked that the authors summarize the current knowledge in their specialty in language suitable for readers with a technical background who may be totally unfamiliar with the field. This is not a comprehensive look at solar-terrestrial physics but a representative view with an emphasis on the sun and on the current possibilities for predicting solar activity that affects the space environment.

This volume grew from a conference jointly sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (via its Space and Atmospheric Physics Committee) and the American Astronomical Society (via its Solar Physics Division). This conference, held in Huntsville, Alabama, in November 1970, had the express purpose of encouraging scientists and space engineers to listen to one another and to appreciate their respective contributions to solar-terrestrial physics. Some of the contributions in this volume are extensive revisions and updatings of the papers presented at the conference. The important contributions from outside the United States were all especially invited after the conference in order to make this volume a better representation of work in solar-terrestrial physics.