"Since the discovery of geomagnetically trapped radiation by Van Allen in 1958, an impressive amount of experimental information on the earth's particle and field environment has nourished research work for scores of scientists and thesis work for their students. This quest has challenged space-age technology to produce better and more sophisticated instruments and has challenged the international scientific community and governments to establish more, and more effective, cooperative programs of research and information exchange. As a result, an orderly picture of the principal physical mechanisms governing the earth's radiation environment is beginning to emerge. The interest in this topic has reached far beyond the domain of geophysics. Indeed, we find trapped radiation elsewhere in the universe: Jupiter's radiation belts, particle trapping in sunspot magnetic fields, cosmic rays confined in interstellar fields and, possibly, ultra-high-energy particles trapped in the magnetic fields of rotating neutron stars. There is abundant technical and scientific literature available on Van Allen radiation; comprehensive reviews are published regularly in journals* or have been collected in book form**, and books have been written on the subject***. The aim of this monograph is to complement the existing literature with a concise discussion of the basic dynamical processes that control the earth's radiation belts. It is mainly intended to help a graduate student or a researcher new to this field to understand the underlying physics and to provide him with guidelines for quantitaƯtive, numerical applications of the theory."--Publisher's website.

Since the discovery of geomagnetically trapped radiation by Van Allen in 1958, an impressive amount of experimental information on the earth's particle and field environment has nourished research work for scores of scientists and thesis work for their students. This quest has challenged space-age technology to produce better and more sophisticated instru ments and has challenged the international scientific community and governments to establish more, and more effective, cooperative programs of research and information exchange. As a result, an orderly picture of the principal physical mechanisms governing the earth's radiation environment is beginning to emerge. The interest in this topic has reached far beyond the domain of geo physics. Indeed, we find trapped radiation elsewhere in the universe: Jupiter's radiation belts, particle trapping in sunspot magnetic fields, cosmic rays confined in interstellar fields and, possibly, ultra-high-energy particles trapped in the magnetic fields of rotating neutron stars. There is abundant technical and scientific literature available on Van Allen radiation; comprehensive reviews are published regularly in journals* or have been collected in book form**, and books have been written on the subject***. The aim of this monograph is to complement the existing literature with a concise discussion of the basic dynamical processes that control the earth's radiation belts. It is mainly intended to help a graduate student or a researcher new to this field to understand the underlying physics and to provide him with guidelines for quantita tive, numerical applications of the theory.

This book is a new edition of Roederer’s classic Dynamics of Geomagnetically Trapped Radiation, updated and considerably expanded. The main objective is to describe the dynamic properties of magnetically trapped particles in planetary radiation belts and plasmas and explain the physical processes involved from the theoretical point of view. The approach is to examine in detail the orbital and adiabatic motion of individual particles in typical configurations of magnetic and electric fields in the magnetosphere and, from there, derive basic features of the particles’ collective “macroscopic” behavior in general planetary environments. Emphasis is not on the “what” but on the “why” of particle phenomena in near-earth space, providing a solid and clear understanding of the principal basic physical mechanisms and dynamic processes involved. The book will also serve as an introduction to general space plasma physics, with abundant basic examples to illustrate and explain the physical origin of different types of plasma current systems and their self-organizing character via the magnetic field. The ultimate aim is to help both graduate students and interested scientists to successfully face the theoretical and experimental challenges lying ahead in space physics in view of recent and upcoming satellite missions and an expected wealth of data on radiation belts and plasmas.

An introductory textbook aimed at first year graduate students specialising in magnetospheric physics.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 199. Dynamics of the Earth's Radiation Belts and Inner Magnetosphere draws together current knowledge of the radiation belts prior to the launch of Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RPSP) and other imminent space missions, making this volume timely and unique. The volume will serve as a useful benchmark at this exciting and pivotal period in radiation belt research in advance of the new discoveries that the RPSP mission will surely bring. Highlights include the following: a review of the current state of the art of radiation belt science; a complete and up-to-date account of the wave-particle interactions that control the dynamical acceleration and loss processes of particles in the Earth's radiation belts and inner magnetosphere; a discussion emphasizing the importance of the cross-energy coupling of the particle populations of the radiation belts, ring current, and plasmasphere in controlling the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere; an outline of the design and operation of future satellite missions whose objectives are to discover the dominant physical processes that control the dynamics of the Earth's radiation belts and to advance our level of understanding of radiation belt dynamics ideally to the point of predictability; and an examination of the current state of knowledge of Earth's radiation belts from past and current spacecraft missions to the inner magnetosphere. Dynamics of the Earth's Radiation Belts and Inner Magnetosphere will be a useful reference work for the specialist researcher, the student, and the general reader. In addition, the volume could be used as a supplementary text in any graduate-level course in space physics in which radiation belt physics is featured.

This collection of papers will address the question "What is the Magnetospheric Cusp?" and what is its role in the coupling of the solar wind to the magnetosphere as well as its role in the processes of particle transport and energization within the magnetosphere. The cusps have traditionally been described as narrow funnel-shaped regions that provide a focus of the Chapman-Ferraro currents that flow on the magnetopause, a boundary between the cavity dominated by the geomagnetic field (i.e., the magnetosphere) and the external region of the interplanetary medium. Measurements from a number of recent satellite programs have shown that the cusp is not confined to a narrow region near local noon but appears to encompass a large portion of the dayside high-latitude magnetosphere and it appears that the cusp is a major source region for the production of energetic charged particles for the magnetosphere. Audience: This book will be of interest to space science research organizations in governments and industries, the community of Space Physics scientists and university departments of physics, astronomy, space physics, and geophysics.

This textbook describes Earth's plasma environment from single particle motion in electromagnetic fields, with applications to Earth's magnetosphere, up to plasma wave generation and wave-particle interaction. The origin and effects of collisions and conductivities are discussed in detail, as is the formation of the ionosphere, the origin of magnetospheric convection and magnetospheric dynamics in solar wind-magnetosphere coupling, the evolution of magnetospheric storms, auroral substorms, and auroral phenomena of various kinds.The second half of the book presents the theoretical foundation of space plasma physics, from kinetic theory of plasma through the formation of moment equations and derivation of magnetohydrodynamic theory of plasmas. The validity of this theory is elucidated, and two-fluid theory is presented in more detail. This is followed by a brief analysis of fluid boundaries, with Earth's magnetopause and bow shock as examples. The main emphasis is on the presentation of fluid and kinetic wave theory, deriving the relevant wave modes in a high temperature space plasma. Plasma instability is the most important topic in all applications and is discussed separately, including a section on thermal fluctuations. These theories are applied to the most interesting problems in space plasma physics, collisionless reconnection and collisionless shock waves with references provided. The Appendix includes the most recent developments in the theory of statistical particle distributions in space plasma, the Kappa distribution, etc, also including a section on space plasma turbulence and emphasizing on new observational developments with a dimensional derivation of the Kolmogorov spectrum, which might be instructive for the student who may worry about its origin.The book ends with a section on space climatology, space meteorology and space weather, a new application field in space plasma physics that is of vital interest when considering the possible hazards to civilization from space.

The discovery of the earth's radiation belts in 1957 marked the beginning of what is now known as magnetospheric physics. The field has evolved normally from an early discovery phase through a period of exploration and into an era of quantitative studies of the dynamics of magnetized plasmas as they occur in nature. Such environments are common throughout the universe and have been studied in varying detail at the sun, the planets, pulsars, and certain radio galaxies. The purpose of this book is to describe basic quantitative aspects of magnetospheric physics. We use selected examples from the earth's magnetosphere to show how theory and data together form a quantitative framework for magnetospheric research. We have tried to organize the material along the philosophy of starting simply and adding com plexity only as necessary. We have avoided controversial and relatively new research topics and have tried to use as examples physical processes generally accepted as important within the earth's magnetospheric system. However, even in some of our examples, the question of whether the physical process applied to a particular problem is the dominant process, has yet to be answered.