Solar and Stellar Activity Cycles

A timely and authoritative synthesis of our understanding of activity cycles in the Sun and similar stars for graduate students and researchers.

Peter R. Wilson (Author)

9780521548212, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 August 2005

296 pages, 71 b/w illus.
24.6 x 18.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.53 kg

'Wilson has provided the university student and postgraduate with a perfect mixture of what is known and what is still to be found. Not only is the book produced, illustrated and referenced to normal high quality of the Cambridge Astrophysics Series, it is also extremely readable.' Nature

How do you predict the parameters of future solar cycles? What is the role of dynamo theory in the cyclic activity of the Sun and similar stars? And what are the implications of chaos theory for stellar cycles? This book answers these questions and offers a timely review of studies in the cyclic activity of the Sun and other stars. This authoritative reference shows the importance of reliable predictions of the parameters of future solar cycles, and carefully explains the methods currently used to determine these (with special reference to the maximum of cycle 22). Some of the latest research into solar cycles is clearly presented; this includes helioseismology, observations of the extended activity cycle and the polar fields reversal, and contributions from dynamo theory and chaos theory. For graduate students and researchers, this monograph provides a much-needed synthesis of our understanding of activity cycles in the Sun and other stars.

1. Introduction
2. Historical survey
3. The structure of the Sun and the phenomena of activity
4. The equations of magnetohydrodynamics and magnetostatics
5. The one-dimensional configuration of the cycle
6. Heuristic models of the solar cycle
7. Stellar activity and activity cycles
8. The two-dimensional representation of the extended activity cycle
9. The origin of the large-scale fields
10. The reversals of the polar magnetic fields
11. The role of dynamo theory in cyclic activity
12. Helioseismology and the solar cycle
13. Chaos and the cycle
14. Forecasting the cycle
15. Summary and conclusion.

Subject Areas: Astrophysics [PHVB]