User:Michael Ronayne/Test Page

John Allan Eddy
John Allen "Jack" Eddy (March 25, 1931 – June 10, 2009) was an American astronomer who published professionally under the name John A. Eddy but much of the content referencing him can be found under his nickname Jack which he preferred to use. In 1976 Dr. Eddy published a landmark paper in Science titled "The Maunder Minimum" where, using the Nineteenth Century works of Edward W. Maunder and Gustav Spörer, he identified a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 as a time when solar activity all but stopped. In making the case for the anomaly—which he called the Maunder Minimum—he gathered and interpreted data from a wide variety of sources, including first-hand accounts from extant historical observations of the Sun going back to the telescopic observations of Galileo and other contemporary scientists of the 17th and early 18th centuries; from historical reports of the aurora borealis observed in past centuries in Europe and the New World; from visual observations of sunspots seen with the unaided eye at sunrise and sunset in dynastic records from the Orient; from existing descriptions of the eclipsed Sun; and from measurements of carbon-14 in dated tree-rings. In the last of these, which can be used as a proxy indicator of solar activity, he found evidence of other similar periods of solar quiescence in the distant past, the most recent an even longer 90-year span, from about 1450 until 1540, which he named the Spörer Minimum. Both the Maunder and Spörer minima fell during the coldest parts of the Little Ice Age, which suggested a meaningful connection between the longer term behavior of the Sun and of the Earth’s mean surface temperature. In advancing the theory that the Sun is a variable star Eddy observed: "It has long been though that the Sun is a constant star of regular and repeatable behavior. Measurements of the radiative output, or solar constant, seam to justify the first assumption, and the record of periodicity in sunspot numbers is taken as evidence of the second. Both records, however, sample only the most recent history of the Sun."

Childhood and education
Born and raised in Pawnee City, Nebraska with a brother Robert and a sister Lucille, Eddy was the only member of the family to graduate from a university. After attending Doane College for one year, he was appointed by Senator Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska(R) to the US Naval Academy in 1949. It was at Annapolis that he fell in love with the night sky, once being caught on the roof of Bancroft Hall by an officer and given 5 hours of extra duty for not being in bed.

After graduation, he spent 4 years on active duty during the Korean War. He was discharged, and accepted into the graduate school at the University of Colorado, as their first student in astro-geophysics in 1957, later joining the High Altitude Observatory.

Academic career
As a protege of Gordon Newkirk, Eddy worked with Princeton Professor Martin Schwarzschild in studying the solar corona with coronagraphs mounted on weather balloons at altitudes of 80,000 feet. Eddy's thesis was in this area of study.

Eddy completed his PhD Thesis at the University of Colorado at Boulder in December 1961 titled "The Stratospheric Solar Aureole".

"Abstract: The theory of light scattering by small particles is summarized to develop the formulae needed to interpret solar aureole data obtained in balloon flights at stratospheric altitudes. Included are the Rayleihg law for small particles, the Chandrasekhar solution of the planetary scattering problem, and the Mie theory for large particle scattering. Observations cover the wavelength range from 0.37 to 0.79 micron at the scattering angle 2.4 degrees, and over the altitude range from 42,000 ft. to 80,000 ft. The findings suggest that the form of the particle size distribution changes with altitude, becoming a steeper function of particle radius at higher altitudes."

After achieving his PhD, Eddy went into teaching, while maintaining an active research schedule to maintain his credentials. He studied spectral lines and particularly doing work in infrared spectroscopy.

Interdisciplinary work
Eddy received much criticism from within the astronomy community for his interdisciplinary work on Native American medicine wheels, showing how they were used as calendars and observatories. It also earned him criticism from archaeologists at first, although his work was eventually accepted, and even documented in National Geographic and as a guest on tv and radio programs.

As a teacher, he frequently used historical examples to put his students at ease with the idea that not so long ago nobody knew more than they did about solar physics. This caused him to do a lot of research in the history of his own field, particularly covering records of past eclipses and sunspot counts, whereupon he discovered the records of Maunder and others demonstrating that there was indeed long term variability in solar activity.

Eugene Parker of the University of Chicago, when promoting his theory of the existence of a solar wind, which caused Parker to receive much scorn from the community, exposed Eddy to the work of Maunder vis a vis sunspot records.

Post-academia
Eddy was laid off from the High Altitude Observatory at NCAR in 1973 due to budget cutbacks and the poor performance reviews he earned due to his interdisciplinary forays, which were frowned upon at the time. He then was hired by NASA to write a book, which enabled him to travel east to do research in the great astronomy libraries, particularly at Harvard and the Naval Observatory, which he used to also do research on the Maunder Minimum. His work on this was published in the journal Science as a cover story, and established his fame. After publication, his former employers at the HAO tried to hire him back.

The fame resulting from "The Maunder Minimum" paper landed him on the international lecture circuit, giving over 50 talks a year around the world about his work and history.

In 1987 Eddy was awarded the Arctowski Medal by the National Academy of Sciences for studies in solar physics and solar-terrestrial relationships and specifically for "his demonstration of the existence and nature of solar variations of long term and the consequences of these changes for climate and for mankind."

Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION:
 * Doane College, Crete Nebraska, 1949 (Freshman Year).
 * BS, U.S. Naval Academy, 1953.
 * PhD (Astro-geophysics), University of Colorado, 1962.

CAREER HISTORY: RESEARCH INTERESTS:


 * Earth System Science.
 * Solar Physics.
 * History of the Sun and of Climate.
 * History of Astronomy.
 * Archaeo-astronomy.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEES AND ELECTED OFFICES:


 * Chairman, Sun-Climate Task Group, NASA Living With a Star Program, 2003
 * U.S. Committee on Global Change Research, National Academy of Sciences, 1987-1993
 * Chairman, Panel on Climate and Global Change, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1988-1992
 * Co-Chairman, Scientific Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), International Council of Scientific Unions. Member of the Committee, 1987-1992.
 * Co-Chairman, IGBP Scientific Steering Committee on Past Global Changes, 1990-1992.
 * President, Commission 41 (History of Astronomy), International Astronomical Union, 1985-1988.
 * U.S. Advisory Committee for the International Council of Scientific Unions, National Academy of Sciences, 1985-1990.
 * Science and Engineering Panel, Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 1986-1988,
 * Advisory Committee, Division of Polar Programs, U.S. National Science Foundation, 1986-1988.
 * Chairman, American Meteorological Society Committee on Global Change, 1986-1988.
 * Chairman, U.S. Committee for an International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, National Research Council, 1984-1987.
 * Ad Hoc Committee for a Global Change Program, International Council of Scientific Unions, 1984-1987.
 * Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate, National Academy of Sciences, 1983-1986.
 * Geosciences Research Council, U.S. Department of Energy, 1986-1987.
 * Panel of Judges, American Association for the Advancement of Science Writing Awards or National Newspapers and Magazines, 1977-1987.
 * Associate Editor, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, American Geophysical Union, 1986-1988.
 * Associate Editor of the journal Climatic Change, 1976-present.
 * Consulting Editor for the journal Archaeoastronomy, 1980-present.
 * Editorial Advisory Board for the journal Climate Dynamics, 1988-present.
 * Chairman, Study Committee on "Sun, Weather, and Climate" for the National Academy of Sciences, 1978-1982.
 * U.S. Chairman, Working Group on Solar Influences on Climate, US/USSR Treaty for the Protection of the Environment, 1979-1985.
 * Chairman, Arecibo Advisory Board and Visiting Committee, 1979-1983,
 * Chairman, Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society, 1981-1983.
 * Chairman, Panel of Judges, American Institute of Physics/U.S. Steel Science Writing Awards for Journalists, 1980-1984.
 * Board of Directors, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1978-1981.
 * Committee on History of Astronomy, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1982-1988.
 * Committee on Solar Terrestrial Research of National Academy of Sciences, 1978-1980.
 * Study Panel on Solar Terrestrial Research in the 1980's, for the National
 * Academy of Sciences, Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research. Chairman of Solar Physics Group, 1979-1980.
 * Study Panel on Atmospheric Sciences in the 1980's, National Academy of Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences Committee. Chairman Solar-Terrestrial Group, 1978.
 * Advisory Committee to the Administrator of NASA on "New Directions for Future Space Research". Chairman of the Solar-Terrestrial Group, 1980.
 * NASA Study Group on a Solar Beacon Spacecraft, 1979-1982.
 * NASA Advisory Group on Evolution of Complex Life, 1981-1983.
 * NASA Study Committee for a solar-Terrestrial Observatory, 1979-1982.
 * Committeeman, Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society 1974-1975.
 * Consultant to the Hayden Planetarium, New York City; the Hansen Planetarium, Salt Lake City; and the Fiske Planetarium, Boulder, Colorado.

HONORS:


 * Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1988.
 * Arctowski Medal in Solar and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, National Academy of Sciences, 1987
 * Visiting Scientist, University of Durham, England, 1985, 1987.
 * James Arthur Prize Lecture in Solar and Solar Terrestrial Physics, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 1983.
 * Research Fellow, National Geographic Society, 1975-1976.
 * NCAR Award for Outstanding Performance in New Technology, 1973.
 * Sigma Xi-RESA Boulder Scientist Award, 1965.
 * National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow, 1962-1963.

SOCIETIES:


 * American Astronomical Society, Solar Physics Division and History of Astronomy Division.
 * American Association for the Advancement of Science.
 * International Astronomical Union.
 * Sigma Xi.
 * American Geophysical Union.
 * Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE:


 * Professor Adjoint, University of Colorado, 1977-1984.
 * Graduate and undergraduate courses taught at the University of Colorado: Solar Physics, Infrared Astronomy, Observational Astronomy, Introductory Astronomy, Physical Science, Astroarchaeology, Atmospheric Optics.

BOOKS:


 * The New Solar Physics (Editor) Westview Press. 1978, 214 pp, ISBN-10: 0891584447.
 * A New Sun (The Solar Results from Skylab) NASA SP-402, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979. 198 pp.
 * The Ancient Sun (Co-Editor, with R.O. Pepin and R.B. Merrill) Pergamon Press, 1980, 581 pp, ISBN-10: 0080263240.
 * Mapping the Sky (Co-Editor, with S. DeBarbat, H.K. Eichhom and A.R. Upgren) Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988, 512 pp, ISBN-10: 9027728097.
 * Global Changes in the Perspective of the Past (Co-Editor, with H. Oeschger) John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1993, 383 pp., ISBN-10: 0471936030
 * The Sun, the Earth and Near-Earth Space: A Guide to the Sun-Earth System; in press, NASA.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Petition to Name the Next Significant Solar Minimum
There is a petition underway, organized by the wattsupwiththat.com blog, to be submitted at the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society in late June, 2009, in Boulder, CO by solar astronomer Dr. Leif Svalgaard, to name the next significant solar minimum the "Eddy Minimum" to honor Eddy's contributions to his field in this line of research.

During an interview, in a statement which may yet prove prophetic, Eddy first used the term "Eddy Minimum" while explaining why he rejected it in favor of naming the event the "Maunder Minimum":

"EDDY: And, you know, the temptation was to think that it might someday be called the 'Eddy Minimum': that is, to call it nothing in the hope that someone else would do that. But being from Nebraska, I could never do anything like that. I also knew I wasn't the first to find it, and it wasn't really mine. I think I did quite a bit for Maunder with that name. Particularly because he also got the idea from somebody else. He got it from Sporer who was a German astronomer. So, among the shots I took after publishing the paper were some from Germany that said, 'You know, you really named it after the wrong person.' Which I knew very well."

While Eddy did not predict the next significant solar minimum he did identify that we are living by the light of a variable star and it is for this reason that the next significant solar minimum should be named in his honor. He was the messenger whose message we have ignored, when he cautioned :

"It was one more defeat in our long and losing battle to keep the Sun perfect, or, if not perfect, constant, and if inconstant, regular. Why we think the Sun should be any of these when other stars are not is more a question for social than for physical science."

Obituaries

 * John A. Eddy, Solar Detective, Dies at 78; NY Times Science
 * Obituary: John A. Eddy; Boulder Daily Camera
 * Jack Eddy; Daily Telegraph Science Obituaries
 * Obituary: John A. Eddy '53; U.S. Naval Academy, Alumni Association

Quotes

 * "We had adopted a kind of solar uniformitarianism," solar physicist John (Jack) Eddy suggested in retrospect. "As people and as scientists we have always wanted the Sun to be better than other stars and better than it really is."


 * Regarding the claims of Maunder and Sporer: "I started by trying to make it go away, mostly because of a prejudice about sun-weather relationships, and what I thought was true about the sun. In time I realized that there was a more profound and philosophical message in the Maunder Minimum: that people want the Sun to be more constant and regular than perhaps it is."


 * "When we have observed the Sun most intensively, its behavior may have been unusually regular and benign."


 * "It was one more defeat in our long and losing battle to keep the Sun perfect, or, if not perfect, constant, and if inconstant, regular. Why we think the Sun should be any of these when other stars are not is more a question for social than for physical science."


 * "Were God to give us, at last, the cable, or patch-cord that links the Sun to the Climate System it would have on the solar end a banana plug, and on the other, where it hooks into the Earth—in ways we don’t yet know—a Hydra-like tangle of multiple 24-pin parallel computer connectors. It is surely at this end of the problem where the greatest challenges lie."


 * "It has long been though that the sun is a constant star of regular and repeatable behavior. Measurements of the radiative output, or solar constant, seam to justify the first assumption, and the record of periodicity in sunspot numbers is taken as evidence of the second. Both records, however, sample only the most recent history of the sun."


 * "I had been taught that while the Sun indeed affects the upper and outer atmosphere of the Earth, purported connections with the troposphere and weather and climate were uniformly wacky and to be distrusted. I still believe that to some extent, for there is a hypnotism about cycles that seems to attract people. It draws all kinds of creatures out of the woodwork. The claims that were made for associations between weather events and the Sun I thought were pretty preposterous. One of those that turned up was this notion that Gene told me about. About the work of Walter Maunder 100 years before, when he had thought that there was a prolonged period of time in the 1600s when the Sun wasn’t so active."