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All aspects of space plasmas in the Solar System are introduced and explored in this text for senior undergraduate and graduate students. Introduction to Space Physics provides a broad, yet selective, treatment of the complex interactions of the ionized gases of the solar terrestrial environment. Introduction to Space Physics includes extensive discussion of the Sun and solar wind, the magnetized and unmagnetized planets, and the fundamental processes of space plasmas including shocks, plasma waves, ULF waves, wave particle interactions, and auroral processes. The text devotes particular attention to space plasma observations and integrates these with phenomenological and theoretical interpretations. Highly coordinated chapters, written by experts in their fields, combine to provide a comprehensive introduction to space physics. Based on an advanced undergraduate and graduate course presented in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, the text will be valuable to both students and professionals in the field.
Introduction
1. Brief history of solar terrestrial physics
2. Physics of space plasmas
3. The Sun
4. The solar wind
5. Collisionless shocks
6. Interactions with magnetized planets
7. Ionospheres
8. Interactions with unmagnetized bodies
9. Magnetopause, tail and reconnection
10. Magnetospheric configuration
11. Magnetic pulsations
12. Plasma waves
13. Magnetospheric dynamics
14. The aurora and the auroral ionosphere
15. Magnetospheres of outer planets
Appendices
Index
"[...] the editors and contributors are to be congratulated on a job well done and on having contributed significantly to teaching in our field."
- S. W. H. Cowley, Observatory
