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OUR TURBULENT SUN by Kendrick Frazier

OUR TURBULENT SUN

By

Pub Date: Feb. 2nd, 1981
Publisher: Prentice-Hall

Still another pop solar survey--with a weak first half about the sun itself, a more satisfactory second half about the sun's possible effects on Earth's climate. On the basics, Frazier covers a lot of incidental matters but provides little information on solar structure and composition (with such phenomena as faculae, spicules, and granules hardly rating a mention), However, in the book's second, independently intelligible section, he carefully explains: the numerous, oft-disputed correlations between solar activity and Earth's climate and weather (including the Milankovitch theory of ice ages); drought cycles and their agreement, in some regions, with tree rings and the solar 22-year magnetic cycle; the solar magnetic field and storm severity on Earth; the solar wind, Earth's electrical field, and thunderstorms. Lastly, there's a review of forthcoming solar experiments and space probes. A possible supplement to Simon Mitton's scientifically impeccable Daytime Star (p. 486)--for the climate-and-weather effects specifically.