LAUSR

the third radiation belt was observed [3]. The new belt, found embedded within the outer one, lasted just about a month. So had it been a month or more later, the ephemeral belt, believed to have been caused by a giant solar prominence that happened on the day after the launch, would have been missed and the world would never know different. As it is, the phenomenon had prompted some fine tweaking in the current theory, especially in the understanding of how the radiation belts behave during major solar events. Virtually all discussions in this advanced reference book are academic but subjects of practical concern and interest such as the consequences of space weather, solar wind, geomagnetic storms and substorms that affect everyone and everything either on terra firma – as the geomagnetic activities can play a role in the global temperature and by extension the global climate – or in orbit – as they have adverse effects on spacecraft hardware and software and by extension the safety of astronauts – are incorporated in many of the chapters.