Magnetized plasmas in the universe exhibit complex dynamical behavior over a huge range of scales. The fundamental mechanisms of energy transport, redistribution and conversion occur at multiple scales. The driving mechanisms often include energy accumulation, free-energy-excited relaxation processes, dissipation and self-organization. The plasma processes associated with energy conversion, transport and self-organization, such as magnetic reconnection, instabilities, linear and nonlinear waves, wave-particle interactions, dynamo processes, turbulence, heating, diffusion and convection represent fundamental physical effects. They demonstrate similar dynamical behavior in near-Earth space, on the Sun, in the heliosphere and in astrophysical environments. 'Multi-scale Dynamical Processes in Space and Astrophysical Plasmas' presents the proceedings of the International Astrophysics Forum Alpbach 2011. The contributions discuss the latest advances in the exploration of dynamical behavior in space plasmas environments, including comprehensive approaches to theoretical, experimental and numerical aspects. The book will appeal to researchers and students in the fields of physics, space and astrophysics, solar physics, geophysics and planetary science.

Full text e-book available as part of the Elsevier ScienceDirect Earth and Planetary Sciences subject collection.

Informal discussions in 1977 among a number of scientists asso ciated with solar and interplanetary physics revealed a need for a dialogue between the two often-divergent groups. It was clear that the latter group was dependent essentially on the sun for its raison d'etre. On the other hand it was also clear that the former group could benefit in its search for insight vis-a-vis solar activity by looking beyond the shell of the inner corona. Needless to add that the combined solar/interplanetary topic is relevant to astrophysics when one considers stellar winds and binary star flows. It was felt, there fore, that a symposium was essential to bring together, for the first time, leading solar and interplanetary physicists from the interna tional community to discuss and record herein their own research. The fundamental physical processes underlying our own capricious star's activity can be understood only by the coupling of solar and interplan etary topics in an intimate observational and theoretical structure. This book, intended for active research scientists and advanced grad uate students, is an important step in this direction. The background of solar and interplanetary dynamics is provided in Part I (The Life History of Coronal Structures and Fields) and Part II (Coronal and Interplanetary Responses to Long Time Scale Phenomena).

The Solar System is a complex and fascinating dynamical system. This is the first textbook to describe comprehensively the dynamical features of the Solar System and to provide students with all the mathematical tools and physical models they need to understand how it works. It is a benchmark publication in the field of planetary dynamics and destined to become a classic. Clearly written and well illustrated, Solar System Dynamics shows how a basic knowledge of the two- and three-body problems and perturbation theory can be combined to understand features as diverse as the tidal heating of Jupiter's moon Io, the origin of the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt, and the radial structure of Saturn's rings. Problems at the end of each chapter and a free Internet Mathematica® software package are provided. Solar System Dynamics provides an authoritative textbook for courses on planetary dynamics and celestial mechanics. It also equips students with the mathematical tools to tackle broader courses on dynamics, dynamical systems, applications of chaos theory and non-linear dynamics.