I have been asked by Professor Kikuchi to write a foreword for this interesting book on Dusty Plasmas and other electrical phenomena. This was a somewhat daunting task due to the wide range of topics covered. In what follows I have attempted to summarize most of these topics; for this purpose I have divided them into four groups, namely (a) Dusty Plasmas, (b) The Electrical Environment, (c) Lightning and (d) The Noise Environment. I hope that I have succeeded. in indicating that each section contains much that is of great interest. It is perhaps unnecessary for me to point out that the book contains subjects which are at an exciting and important stage in their development. (a) Dusty Plasmas The subject of dusty plasmas is one of great interest. Dust particles in interplanetary space, within comets, in inter-stellar space and at ever greater distances will in general be charged. The plasma environment will ensure this, bombarding electrons will charge up the particle until it assumes a "floating potential," although time variation can occur. Ultra violet radiation can cause photoemission and in certain cases field emission is a possibility. The motion of the particles will be determined by electric and magnetic fields together with gravity. If the density of charged grains becomes sufficiently high the grains will interact with each other and collective behaviour will ensue. This newly evolving subject entails the study of all kinds of plasma waves.

This monograph is the first book exclusively devoted to Electrohydrodynamics in Dusty and Dirty Plasmas with extended Electrodynamics and Gravito-Electrodynamics with Electric Mirrors. The book incorporates novel concepts of Electro Cusp-Reconnection and Generalized Critical Ionization Velocities as well as modern concepts of Self-Organization and Chaos. Therefore, the book is special and quite different from the previous edition in the field of plasma physics in terms of scope, object, and approach. The scope of the present work is much broader and much more general with space and laboratory applications, including collisional neutral and partially ionized gases in electric and space-charge fields, thereby accompanying electrical charging, electrification, discharge, ionization and recombination. The book will serve as a text book, text-related or reference book for graduate students, post graduates, and scientists in geo-astro, space, and laboratory plasma physics, electromagnetics and fluid dynamics. In addition, it will be useful for researchers outside the plasma community who wish to obtain new physical insights, aspects, and points of view.

The diverse and often surprising new facts about planetary rings and comet environments that were reported by the interplanetary missions oflate 1970s - 1980s stimulated investigations of the so-called dusty plasma. The number of scientific papers on the subject that have been published since is quite impressive. Recently, a few surveys and special journal issues have appeared. Time has come to integrate some of the knowledge in a book. Apparently, this is the first monograph on dusty and self-gravitational plasmas. While the circle of pertinent problems is rather clearly defined, not all of them are equally represented here. The authors have concentrated on cooperative phenomena (Le. waves and instabilities) in the dusty plasma and the effects of self-gravitation. At the same time, in an attempt to present the vast material consistently, we have included such topics as electrostatics of the dusty plasma and gravitoelectrodynamics of individual charged particles. Also mentioned are astrophysical implications, mostly concerning planetary rings. We hope that the book shall be of interest and value both to specialists and those (astro )physicists who have just discovered this area of plasma physics. We are thankful to many scientists actively working in the field of dusty plasma physics who have generously let us become acquainted with their results, sometimes prior to publication of their own papers: U. de Angelis, N. D'Angelo, o. Havnes, A. Mendis, M. Rosenberg, P. Shukla, F. Verheest, and E. Wollman.

The book presents the most recent developments of laboratory studies in astrophysics and space research. The individual chapters review laboratory investigations under simulated space conditions, studies for the design of successful space experiments or for supporting the interpretation of astronomical and space mission recorded data. Related theoretical models, numerical simulations and in situ observations demonstrate the necessity of experimental work on the Earth's surface. The expertise of the contributing scientists covers a broad spectrum and is included in general overviews from fundamental science to recent space technology. The book intends to serve as a reference for researchers and graduate students on the most recent activities and results in laboratory astrophysics, and to give reviews of their applications in astronomy, planetology, cosmochemistry, space research and Solar System exploration.

Dust-plasma interactions are of interest not only to space scientists and astrophysicists but lately also to technologists working in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. This book shows the wide scope of this new field, which is presently in a rapid state of development. It includes discussions not only of the physics and dynamics of charged dust in various plasma environments, but also of collective processes in dusty plasmas (new wave modes and instabilities), and the fascinating new development of the crystallization of dusty plasmas in the laboratory.

Turbulence is one of the most wide-spread phenomena in the universe. It relates to processes within the atmosphere, ocean, deep within the earth, as well as to the stars. The general public usually knows about turbulence from the unpleasant shaking of an airplane, or from disastrous atmospheric phenomena such as typhoons and hurricanes. The chaotic and unpredictable behavior of turbulent movement makes it very difficult to study. The degree of understanding of turbulence is still far from being complete. Some progress was made with the recent advent of a new science--chaos theory. The authors succeeded in examining one basic feature of turbulence called helicity (or spirality) which is the foundation of explaining and predicting the generation of large turbulent structures (e.g. typhoons). Helicity is a universal feature existing not only in fluid flows but also in solid bodies and even in living organisms. This book can be especially useful for researchers and students in fluid mechanics, plasma, geophysics, biology, and meteorology. * Examines the helical mechanism of self-organization in nature and laboratory * Presents a unified approach to chaos and theory * Discusses similarities and differences in the formation of dynamic and magnetic structures * Successfully combines profound theoretical and experimental knowledge * Includes a disk with an expanded bibliographical database

This book on electromagnetic resonance phenomena describes a general approach to physical problems, ways to solve them, and properties of the solutions obtained. Attention is given to the discussion and interpretation of formal and experimental data and their links to global atmospheric conditions such as the dynamics of global thunderstorm activity, variations of the effective height of the lower ionosphere, etc. Schumann resonance is related to worldwide thunderstorm activity, and simultaneously, to global properties of the lower ionosphere. Transverse resonance is predominantly a local phenomenon containing information on the local height and conductivity of the lower ionosphere and on nearby thunderstorm activity. Transient events in ELF-VLF radio propagation are also treated. These are natural pulsed radio signals and/or abrupt changes of manmade VLF radio signals. The transients associated with cloud-to-ionosphere discharges (red sprites, blue jets, trolls) are discussed, and clarification of the underlying physical ideas and their practical applications to pioneer results achieved in the field recently are emphasised.