Overview

Spacecraft such as the Pioneer, Vela, and Voyager have explored the interplanetary medium between the orbits of Mercury and Pluto. The insights derived from these missions have been successfully applied to magnetospheric, astro-solar, and cosmic ray physics. This book is an overview of these insights, using magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows as the framework for interpreting objects and processes observed in the interplanetary medium. Topics include various types of MHD shocks and interactions among them, tangential and rotational discontinuities, force-free field configurations, the formation of merged interaction regions associated with various types of flows, the destruction of flows, the growth of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and formation of a heliospheric vortex street, the development of multifractal fluctuations on various scales, and the evolution of multifractal intermittent turbulence. Students and researchers in astrophysics will value the data from these missions, which provide confirmation of many theoretical models of the interstellar medium.

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9780195084726

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Reviews

'Burlaga blends his detailed understanding of the observations with both standard plasma theory and modern concepts from nonlinear dynamics, turbulence theory and other fields. The mix is almost always satisfactory, and sometimes it is much more... the multifractal presentation is clear and may be useful to nonlinear-dynamics theorists in developing more detailed models... this book will be a valuable and stimulating guide for advanced graduate students and researchers who want to enter space physics or who want a concise discussion of the highly relevant topics that the book covers... Burlaga's blend of concept and experimental reality is a needed step along the way.' Physics Today September 1996

'Burlaga blends his detailed understanding of the observations with both standard plasma theory and modern concepts from nonlinear dynamics, turbulence theory and other fields. The mix is almost always satisfactory, and sometimes it is much more... the multifractal presentation is clear and may be useful to nonlinear-dynamics theorists in developing more detailed models... this book will be a valuable and stimulating guide for advanced graduate students and researchers who want to enter space physics or who want a concise discussion of the highly relevant topics that the book covers... Burlaga's blend of concept and experimental reality is a needed step along the way.' Physics Today September 1996

Author Information

Leonard F. Burlaga received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1966. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the NASA/Goddard Research Center in Maryland.

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