These papers include an exploration of how the solar wind interacts with different solar system obstacles, research on Galileo's flybys of asteroids Gaspra and Ida, and a comparison between the terrestial and Jovian magnetospheres.

This book makes good background reading for much of modern magnetospheric physics. Its origin was a Festspiel for Professor Jim Dungey, former professor in the Physics Department at Imperial College on the occasion of his 90th birthday, 30 January 2013. Remarkably, although he retired 30 years ago, his pioneering and, often, maverick work in the 50’s through to the 70’s on solar terrestrial physics is probably more widely appreciated today than when he retired. Dungey was a theoretical plasma physicist. The book covers how his reconnection model of the magnetosphere evolved to become the standard model of solar-terrestrial coupling. Dungey’s open magnetosphere model now underpins a holistic picture explaining not only the magnetic and plasma structure of the magnetosphere, but also its dynamics which can be monitored in real time. The book also shows how modern day simulation of solar terrestrial coupling can reproduce the real time evolution of the solar terrestrial system in ways undreamt of in 1961 when Dungey’s epoch-making paper was published. Further contributions on current Earth magnetosphere research and space plasma physics included in this book show how Dungey’s basic ideas have remained explanative 50 years on. But the Festspiel also introduced some advances that possibly Dungey had not foreseen. One of the contributions presented in this book is on the variety of magnetospheres of the solar system which have been seen directly during the space age, discussing the variations in spatial scale and reconnection time scale and comparing them in respect of Earth, Mercury, the giant planets as well as Ganymede.

Despite the plethora of monographs published in recent years, few cover recent progress in magnetospheric physics in broad areas of research. While a topical focus is important to in-depth views at a problem, a broad overview of our field is also needed. The volume answers to the latter need. With the collection of articles written by leading scientists, the contributions contained in the book describe latest research results in solar wind-magnetosphere interaction, magnetospheric substorms, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, transport phenomena in the plasma sheet, wave and particle dynamics in the ring current and radiation belts, and extra-terrestrial magnetospheric systems. In addition to its breadth and timeliness, the book highlights innovative methods and techniques to study the geospace.

This book contains the proceedings of the 1989 Crafoord Symposium organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The scientific field for the Crafoord Prize of 1989 was decided in 1988 by the Academy to be Magnetospheric Physics. On September 27,1989 the Academy awarded the 1989 Crafoord Prize to Professor J. A. Van Allen, Iowa City, USA "for his pioneer work in space research, in particular for the discovery of the high energy charged particles that are trapped in the Earth's magnetic field and form the radiation belts -often called the Van Allen belts - around the Earth". The subject for the Crafoord Symposium, which was held on September 28-29 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, was Magnetospheric Physics, Achievements and Prospects. Some seventy of the world's leading scientists in magnetospheric physics (see list of participants) were invited to the Symposium. The program contained only invited papers. After the ?resentation of the Crafoord Prize Laureate, Prof. J . A. Van Allen, and his specially invited lecture: "Active Experiments in Magnetospheric Physics" follows in these proceedings two papers on the achievements of magnetospheric research hitherto. The main part of the proceedings (8 papers) deal with the main theme of the Symposium: How we shall carry on magnetospheric research in the future. The Symposium was organized by five members of the Academy representing the field of space physics: Lars Block (Stockholm), Rolf Bostrom (Uppsala), Kerstin Fredga (Stockholm), Carl-Gunne Fiilthammar (Stockholm) and Bengt Hultqvist (Kiruna, Chairman).

In 2010, NASA and the National Science Foundation asked the National Research Council to assemble a committee of experts to develop an integrated national strategy that would guide agency investments in solar and space physics for the years 2013-2022. That strategy, the result of nearly 2 years of effort by the survey committee, which worked with more than 100 scientists and engineers on eight supporting study panels, is presented in the 2013 publication, Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society. This booklet, designed to be accessible to a broader audience of policymakers and the interested public, summarizes the content of that report.