Acknowledgments
As we have been reminded many times, you never finish, you just run out of time. And so it is with this book. It took two years to plan and to convince ourselves that there was a story to be told, with a little push from colleague Pat Reiff of Rice University, who once suggested “we need to find a writer to put together a book on space weather.” It took another two years of research, interviewing, outlining, thinking, writing, revising, and rewriting . . . with a few pauses for career moves and the births of two children. The process could continue endlessly, just as any scientific inquiry always leads to a new set of questions. But it is time to share our limited view of a burgeoning and exciting new science of our time.
It has been an odyssey for two novice authors but one we would both take again. Along the way we have found many great stories and interesting people, but it is the nature of storytelling that some things get in and some get left out. This book is intended as a mere introduction to an intriguing subject and not the definitive, comprehensive work that tells the whole truth. There are fine books and web sites already written about the inner workings of the Sun and a few very good ones about the aurora as well. But ours is an attempt to pull the Sun and Earth into the same field of view, to reveal our planet and our star as part of an interconnected system that brings a lot more to our life than just daylight and sunburns. Painting the big picture of space weather and its implications means that we had to use broad brush strokes, so we must apologize in advance to our colleagues for the discoveries, the great minds, and the scientific nuances that were left off the canvas.
Many colleagues coaxed and helped us as Storms from the Sun took over our lives. For their patience, ideas, comradeship, editorial ideas, and support over the years, we thank Bob Hoffman, Nicky Fox, Mario Acuña, Mauricio Peredo, Jean Desselle, Elaine Lewis, Don Michels, Pål Brekke, Joe Gurman, John Lyon, Michael Wiltberger, and Chuck Goodrich. David Stern, Richard Thompson, and Ed Cliver probably do not realize how much they helped us, but they are all excellent historians of the field who have done a great service to the community by writing and preserving the past. Without James A. Van Allen and his pioneering work there probably wouldn't be a book to write about space weather, so we are particularly grateful for his contribution to this book and to the world. Dan Baker deserves heartfelt thanks for his critical review and thoughtful comments on our manuscript, as does Debra Hudak for a fine job of copy editing. Other colleagues have graciously shared their insights or generously offered their time to review sections of the book, including Joe Allen, George Siscoe, Nancy Crooker, Jeff Hughes, JoAnn Joselyn, Ray Roble, Greg Ginet, Harry van Loon, Gary Heckman, Ernie Hildner, Tom Bogdan, Dave Webb, Tom Holzer, Joe Kunches, George Withbroe, Geoff Reeves, Barbara Poppe, Terry Onsager, Anatta, Joe Hirman,
John Kappenman, Mervyn Freeman, Marsha Korose, David Boteler, Chris Kunstadter, Alan Tribble, Gautam Badwar, Robert Barish, and many others. We also thank Jan Curtis, Dick Hutchinson, and Fred Espenak for use of their photos, and Steele Hill for his artwork, his image magic, and his friendship. We also owe a special debt of gratitude to our favorite intern and library researcher, Theresa Valentine, who probably doesn’t realize yet that she would make an excellent reporter if she weren’t such a promising young scientist.
Two other mentors and friends contributed in subtle ways to this work. Brother Regis Moccia deserves our gratitude for starting a young writer on his professional journey many years ago, and Steve Maran offered the encouragement—and the occasional friendly chastisement—to get this story out to the public. Ann Merchant, Robin Pinnel, Stephen Mautner, and the rest of the staff of the Joseph Henry Press have made our first foray into book publishing a memorable and enjoyable one. We also owe a special debt of gratitude to our literary agent, Skip Barker, and to our editor, Jeff Robbins, for sticking with us patiently through a long and arduous process, for making the book better, and for believing in us.
Finally, we would like to thank our parents and families for a lifetime of support and a couple of years of extra patience, curiosity, understanding—and babysitting. But most of all, this book would not have been possible without the help of our wives, Florence Langford Carlowicz and Ellen Florian Lopez, who helped us through the joys, the struggle, the excitement, the writer’s blocks, and the manic bursts of creativity that brought Storms into the world. This book could not have been published without them.
