The 23rd Cycle: Learning to Live with a Stormy Star

When I saw the title of this book, I had images of butterfly diagrams, an adequate amount of astrophysics and space physics, etc. However, the book's subtitle, "Learning to Live with a Stormy Star" was a much better clue as to the book's contents. Although some stellar/space science is briefly discussed, the main theme of the book is centered on sociological hardships, financial losses, research budgets, business interests, etc., all pertaining to our periodically stormy sun. Especially highlighted are: the survival of expensive satellites in space during less than ideal space weather, the sociological effects of their loss and the effects of this weather on power grids on earth. But my unfulfilled expectations and resulting disappointment should not result in a poor rating for this book. It is well written, very informative and seems to thoroughly cover, I think, what it was apparently intended to cover - hence my rating of 4 stars.

I am recommending this book to everyone. I am quite convinced by Odenwald's data and studies I have encountered prior to this epochal book that our goverments need to take seriously what the good doctor is warning us about. The threat of unprecedented super-solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections from our unsteady star, ones that could blank out power-grids, destroy communications satellites and possibly fry increasingly vunerable microchips is something every thinking person should consider. Nevertheless, despite the five star rating I gave, I was appalled at the meager three-page index, the (in a few places) inaccurate bibliography and the many errata, typoes and copy-edit mistakes in the text. Everyone who buys or reads this book needs to heed this caveat and go to the website; and there are useful updates as well. Nonetheless, I see the need for urgency in rushing it into press, but do not see why a Ph.D (who probably finds his lay contacts amusing) and a respected publisher like Columbia University Press would allow errors that are usually -- allegedly -- reserved for the much reviled and controversial Print On Demand books. I urge Dr. Odenwald and his publisher to provide us with a revised edition (with, important material to make the 23rd Cycle even a greater book and more complete than it currently is) as soon as feasible.

Interesting topic, though I judged the coverage to be uneven. Readers wanting an update about solar physics will be disappointed by a lack of details; but this can be supplemented by a visit to NASA’s solar physics Web pages.... Policy-makers should be impressed by the real and potential economic fallout from massive solar plasma discharges; but some of Odenwald’s detailed examples illustrate a coincidental rather than true cause-and-effect relation of solar events to Earth-based calamities. The Exon Valdez disaster is discussed at length before being dismissed, and is referenced later. Several pages detail inconveniences due to a power blackout in the D.C. area which had nothing to do with unusual solar activity. I found these references obtuse — I would have greatly preferred to see more information about the sun.Still, the book’s final chapter is particularly illuminating, detailing current activities and difficulties for space weather researchers seeking project funding in competition with higher profile but much less utilitarian activities such as cosmology. This is followed by several interesting "notes" which provide a few more details about certain chapter topics. The last few pages quote astronomers describing stars seemingly similar to our sun which periodically emit massively greater plasma discharges, enough to literally fry our little world in an instant. Why is our sun different? This is really getting interesting! You turn the page, and that’s it — end of story.Odenwald’s intent is to increase awareness about real and potential economic and personal safety issues related to variable solar activity. His book serves as a useful starting point for interested general science readers. Those seeking in-depth coverage of this topic will need to look elsewhere, starting with papers and documents listed in the lengthy bibliography.

If I could give this book three and a half stars I would, but since I think some people could find it more interesting than I did, I gave it four starts.This book describes the sun's eleven-year cycle of highs and lows in sun spot activity. While the mechanism, which produces these sun spots, is not well understand, what well known is that the sun produces vast amounts of high energy particles (radiation), both continuously and in bursts which ultimately affects the Earth's magnetic field and life on Earth. The book focused on how past solar magnetic storms have affected the power grid system and the geostationary satellites. Finally, the author makes some predictions on the upcoming solar maximum in the year 2001 and its potential for life on Earth. I should point out that the author is an astronomer and makes his predictions based on data and past experiences and not is some doomsayer trying to make a quick buck.There are also several extremely interesting chapters on the effects of solar magnetic storms on the modern day life. One chapter shows that in 1989, a solar magnetic storm shut down a good portion of the Canadian electrical power grid, leaving some people without power for several days. The chapter on the effects of radiation on the human body was very enlightening. For example, this chapter shows that living in high altitude location like Denver was similar to receiving several chest X-rays a year. Also, radiation from cosmic sources was significantly greater than that received from living next to a nuclear power plant. One area that was overlooked in this was the effect of sun spot activity on global warming or cooling. It is well known that a mini ice age that occurred several centuries ago coincided with a lack of sun spot activity.