Product Description

All aspects of space plasmas in the Solar System are introduced and explored in this text for senior undergraduate and graduate students. Introduction to Space Physics provides a broad, yet selective, treatment of the complex interactions of the ionized gases of the solar terrestrial environment. The book includes extensive discussion of the Sun and solar wind, the magnetized and unmagnetized planets, and the fundamental processes of space plasmas including shocks, plasma waves, ULF waves, wave particle interactions, and auroral processes. The text devotes particular attention to space plasma observations and integrates these with phenomenological and theoretical interpretations. Highly coordinated chapters, written by experts in their fields, combine to provide a comprehensive introduction to space physics. Based on an advanced undergraduate and graduate course presented in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, the text will be valuable to both students and professionals in the field.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #306651 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 568 pages

Review
‘… the editors and contributors are to be congratulated on a job well done and on having contributed significantly to teaching in our field.’ S. W. H. Cowley, Observatory

Customer Reviews

Dense, but the leader in the field
Each chapter in this book was written by the world leader in the corresponding field of space physics. This makes the chapters well contained, highly relevant and totally reliable. You can find everything you would ever want to know on the mathematics of space plasmas in chapter 3, for instance.

The composite approach does make the style of the book quite variable, it is not particularly light reading, and the emphasis shifts quite rapidly throughout. The problems at the end of each chapter vary considerably, from trivial and boring to extremely difficult (and boring). This is an excellent reference book, but don't rely on it completely for teaching purposes.