Uncover the mysteries of space weather and solar activity, and learn about the practical consequences on human activity from astronaut safety to power grid blackouts with this authoritative compilation of up-to-date official documents. The 11 parts of this massive compilation report on every aspect of the vital role of the sun and space weather. Contents include: Part 1: Overview * Part 2: Solar Basics * Part 3: The Sun, the Earth, and Near-Earth Space: A Guide to the Sun-Earth System * Part 4: Solar Storms and You! Exploring the Human Impacts of Solar Activity * Part 5: Workshop Report on Space Weather Risks and Society * Part 6: Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Mission Briefing * Part 7: National Space Weather Program Strategic Plan * Part 8: Report on Space Weather Observing Systems: Current Capabilities and Requirements for the Next Decade * Part 9: Halloween Space Weather Storms of 2003 * Part 10: Intense Space Weather Storms October 19 - November 07, 2003 Service Assessment * Part 11: In The Dark - Military Planning for a Catastrophic Critical Infrastructure Event This compilation includes the book, The Sun, the Earth, and Near-Earth Space: A Guide to the Sun-Earth System. a beautifully written work by one of America's top solar experts providing an easy-to-read yet thorough guide to our Sun and its impact on planet Earth. An excerpt: "In a world of warmth and light and living things we soon forget that we are surrounded by a vast universe that is cold and dark and deadly dangerous, just beyond our door. On a starry night, when we look out into the darkness that lies around us, the view can be misleading in yet another way: for the brightness and sheer number of stars, and their chance groupings into familiar constellations, make them seem much nearer to each other, and to us, that in truth they are. And every one of them--each twinkling, like a diamond in the sky--is a white-hot sun, much like our own. The nearest stars in our own galaxy--the Milky Way-- are more than a million times further away from us than our star, the Sun." Contents: Our Dependence on Sun * Sun's Inconstancy * Voyages of Discovery in an Age of Exploration * Sun as a Star * Perpetual Combustion * How Constant Is and Was Sun? * Metered Sunshine * First Who Saw Face of Sun * Photosphere * Sunspots * Sun's Chromosphere and Corona * SOLAR WIND & SOLAR VARIABILITY * Explosive Solar Flares * Solar Prominences and Filaments * Coronal Mass Ejections * NEAR-EARTH ENVIRONMENT * A Protected Planet * Air Above Us * Changes on Way to Top * Troposphere * Stratosphere * Mesosphere and Thermosphere * Ionized Upper Atmosphere * End of Atmosphere * Into Magnetosphere * Form and Function of Magnetosphere * Paths that Particles Follow * Captive Particles in Magnetosphere * Earth's Radiation Belts * Plasmasphere * Heliosphere * Cruising Heliosphere * FLUCTUATIONS IN SOLAR RADIATION AT EARTH * Changes in Total Solar Irradiance * Variability in Different Parts of Spectrum * Effects of Sun's Rotation * Effects of Earth's Orbit * VARIATION IN FLOW OF PARTICLES AT EARTH * Nature of Arriving Particles * Solar Sources * Particles Borne Outward in CMEs * Particles from Solar Flare * Solar Wind Plasma * Characteristics of Slow Solar Wind Streams * High-Speed Solar Wind Streams * Sectors in Sun's Extended Magnetic Field * Pushing and Shoving on Way to Earth * When Solar Particles Strike Earth * Through Guarded Gates Magnetic Reconnection * Effects of Changes in Earth's Magnetic Field * Cosmic Rays * Fate of Cosmic Rays * IMPACTS OF SOLAR VARIABILITY * Solar Causes, Terrestrial Impacts, and Societal Effects * Impacts on Near-Earth Space * Magnetic Storms * Aurora * Impacts on Upper Atmosphere