conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide a description for a book titled The 23rd Cycle about NASA, During, Washington with the genre: Science & Math, Physics.. End with the sentence ' not seen by PW.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: During the year 2000, the number of sunspots reached the peak of their 11-year cycle, the 23rd such cycle since scientists first discovered the dark solar blotches. So what? As the author, a NASA staffer and Washington Post contributor (The Astronomy Cafe), and other scientists expected, this proliferation of solar storms produced marked effects on Earth, including an increase in the intensity and extent of auroras. the author warns that the 23rd cycle may also produce other, less welcome effects before it reaches its quiescent end in 2006, and the 24th cycle will be even more problematic. His prediction is based on the increasing vulnerability of advanced technology to space weather phenomena, such as bursts of X-rays and energetic particles or geomagnetic storms. The failure of satellites and even gas pipelines have been attributed to the impact of solar storms; given our increasingly networked digital infrastructure and our growing reliance on space-based technology, the author foresees future problems with communication, navigation and electric power grids, all subject to sudden failure from events that begin on the sun. Astronauts may suffer radiation sickness--even death-- if caught without warning or sufficient protection. The problems are sociological and political as well as technological, the author asserts. As space-based business proliferates, it is often advantageous to hide small failures due to space weather or to attribute them to other causes. Practical technological needs carry little weight when NASA funding depends on scientific merit, the author declares, calling for more funding to understand and predict space weather. "The sun is not the well-behaved neighbor we would like to imagine," he says. the author offers a cogent warning, which deserves to have an impact beyond the book's own immediate readership of space science enthusiasts. B&amp;w and color illus. not seen by PW.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first two paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The 23rd Cycle
  Ironically, the ACE satellite seems constantly on the verge of cancellation by NASA to make way for newer missions. The fact that ACE data plays such a vital role in GIC forecasting for the power industry seems to be of no special interest to NASA. NASA is, after all, a research organization supported by the US taxpayer, not a for-profit corporation looking for commercialization opportunities. The viability of the ACE mission at NASA hinges totally on its scientific returns and not its potential for practical applications. NASA also has to make way for future missions with the declining, and politically vulnerable, space research budgets that the U.S. Congress, in its wisdom, has mandated. In England, which uses the PowerCast technology, ACE is seen as an ally in keeping their entire multibillion dollar electrical utility system operating reliably. Arslan Erinmez, chief engineer at the National Grid Company in England, notes that "The British power industry would be happy to do anything it can to keep ACE going." While the destiny of satellites such as ACE turns completely on how well its scientists can convince NASA and Congress not to terminate it, its politically silent, commercial clients both domestic and foreign continue to mine its data to help the power industry keep your electricity flowing.
  Typically, engineers are becoming more specialized and are less likely to understand the hazards of the space environment. Often we have to relearn things that were known by people who retire or move on.... It is also recognized that private companies have a disinclination to release information on their own problems.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about Rutherford, Appleton, Labs, invested, tracking.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The 23rd Cycle
  Ironically, the ACE satellite seems constantly on the verge of cancellation by NASA to make way for newer missions. The fact that ACE data plays such a vital role in GIC forecasting for the power industry seems to be of no special interest to NASA. NASA is, after all, a research organization supported by the US taxpayer, not a for-profit corporation looking for commercialization opportunities. The viability of the ACE mission at NASA hinges totally on its scientific returns and not its potential for practical applications. NASA also has to make way for future missions with the declining, and politically vulnerable, space research budgets that the U. S. Congress, in its wisdom, has mandated. In England, which uses the PowerCast technology, ACE is seen as an ally in keeping their entire multibillion dollar electrical utility system operating reliably. Rutherford Appleton Labs has invested in its own independent ACE satellite tracking station to intercept the solar wind data. Arslan Erinmez, chief engineer at the National Grid Company in England, notes that "The British power industry would be happy to do anything it can to keep ACE going. " While the destiny of satellites such as ACE turns completely on how well its scientists can convince NASA and Congress not to terminate it, its politically silent, commercial clients both domestic and foreign continue to mine its data to help the power industry keep your electricity flowing. 
  Typically, engineers are becoming more specialized and are less likely to understand the hazards of the space environment. Often we have to relearn things that were known by people who retire or move on.... It is also recognized that private companies have a disinclination to release information on their own problems.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide five more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Blackouts and power interruptions of one kind or another are actually more common than you might suppose. Some last only fractions of a second, while others can last nearly a week. During a severe ice storm in 1999, seventy thousand people lost power for up to five days during a cold winter in the Washington, D.C. and Maryland region. New York City lost power for several days on a hot Wednesday in July 1977. Ten million people were without electricity, and two thousand were arrested for looting. In July–August 1996, ten states and six million people were without power for sixteen hours. The Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, California has estimated that even short interruptions—sags—lasting less than half a second can cost U.S. companies $12 to $26 billion each year. Some paper companies lose $50,000 each time one of these dips comes along every week or so and stops five-ton spools of paper dead in their tracks, shredding hundreds of yards of paper and jamming presses.
  The electrical power industry is slowly beginning to take GICs seriously because of several factors that have come to light in recent years. Power grid performance has become so optimized that any sources of inefficiency have become intolerable. GICs damage expensive equipment and generate VARs, which rob power companies of millions of dollars of potential revenue. Like a tax auditor, GICs can come at any time and affect hundreds of transformers in one stroke. Margins have also diminished so that there is less surplus power to cover emergency situations.
  Developers of GIC monitors and forecasting technology are currently on the stump to sell their systems to power companies, but the process is hampered by power company managers who do not fully accept that GICs are a financial liability for them they can do something about. Reports of distant and sporadic blackouts (Quebec) have not fully impressed U.S. power managers because they do not affect their customers directly. In a $214-billion-a-year industry involving 700,000 miles of high-voltage power lines, losing a transformer every few years—or dealing with a solar storm-induced blackout against the hubris of other blackouts and sags—seems an unwarranted financial concern. Besides, although electrical utility customers reasonably expect their local power company to do all they can to keep the power running during an ice storm, solar storms are not a part of this expectation. They are a rare and "cosmic" event that most of us will pardon power companies from worrying about. But, sometimes, rare events can make a difference in tragic ways.
  The Marecs-1 satellite, also suffered a complete failure on March 25, 1991. This satellite had a history of space environment problems. Its predecessor, Marecs-A launched in December 1981 had already been disabled ten years earlier by the strong electrical currents flowing during a week of intense auroral activity in February 1982.
  According to Michael Vinter, vice president of International Space Brokers in Virginia, this period was once as short as one year but has now grown to as long as five years depending on the perceived riskiness of the satellite. If a satellite experiences environmental or technological problems in orbit during the initial shakeout period, the insurance premium paid by the satellite owner can jump to 3.5–3.7 percent for the duration of the satellite's lifetime. This is the only avenue that insurers have currently agreed upon to protect themselves against the possibility of a complete satellite failure. Once an insurance policy is negotiated, the only way that an insurer can avoid paying out on the full cost of the satellite is in the event of war, nuclear detonation, confiscation, electromagnetic interference, or willful acts by the satellite owner that jeopardize the satellite. There is no provision for "acts of God" such as solar storms or other environmental problems. Insurers assume that if a satellite is sensitive to space weather effects, this will show up in the reliability of the satellite, which would then cause the insurer to invoke the higher premium rates during the remaining life of the satellite. Insurers, currently, do not pay any attention to the solar cycle.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last five paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Forecasting: costs; flares; geomagnetic storms; history; modeling; Nowcasts; Powercast; power consumption; programs; Sunburst
  Great Aurora: April 1981; April 1997; April 2000; August 1972; February 1872; February 1907; February 1956; January 1938; January 1997; March 1940; March 1989; November 1848; November; 1882; September 1859; September 1909; September 1941
  Radiation: airlines; astronaut; cosmic-ray; dosages; hardening; lethal; Mars trip; measurement; MIR; natural; sickness; types
  Satellites, individual: ACE; AMSC-1; Anik; APEX; DBS-1; Dynamics Explorer; Explorer 1; Galaxy IV; Galaxy-7; Geotail; GOES; HELIOS; IMAGE; IMP-8; Intelsat-K; ISEE-3; ISTP; Koreasat-1; Marecs-1; OSO-7; POLAR; SMEI; SOHO; STEREO; Syncom 3; TDRSS-1; Teledesic T1; Telstar-1; Telstar 401; TRACE; Triana; Tempo-2; WIND
  Solar Cycle 23: Adeos satellite; coronal mass ejections; date; Equator-S; ETS-7; forecasting; Galaxy IV; Galaxy VII; GOES-8; Insat-1C; Insat-2D; Insat-2E; Iridium satellites; maximum; NEAR; POLAR; progress; severity; sunspots; Telstar 401; Tempo-2