Characterizing Space Plasmas

This didactic book uses a data-driven approach to connect measurements made by plasma instruments to the real world. This approach makes full use of the instruments’ capability and examines the data at the most detailed level an experiment can provide. Students using this approach will learn what instruments can measure, and working with real-world data will pave their way to models consistent with these observations. While conceived as a teaching tool, the book contains a considerable amount of new information. It emphasizes recent results, such as particle measurements made from the Cluster ion experiment, explores the consequences of new discoveries, and evaluates new trends or techniques in the field. At the same time, the author ensures that the physical concepts used to interpret the data are general and widely applicable. The topics included help readers understand basic problems fundamental to space plasma physics. Some are appearing for the first time in a space physics textbook. Others present different perspectives and interpretations of old problems and models that were previously considered incontestable. This book is essential reading for graduate students in space plasma physics, and a useful reference for the broader astrophysics community.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 102. Space plasma measurements are conducted in a hostile, remote environment. The art and science of measurements gathered in space depend therefore on unique instrument designs and fabrication methods to an extent perhaps unprecedented in experimental physics. In-situ measurement of space plasmas constitutes an expensive, unforgiving, and highly visible form of scientific endeavor.

This book focuses on the non-traditional branches of physics and mechanics of shock waves that have arisen recently in connection with the intensive study of these waves in a wide variety of phenomena - from nuclear matter to clusters of galaxies. The book is devoted to the various physical phenomena and properties of intense shock waves. The author addresses methods of generation, diagnostics, as well as theoretical methods for describing shock waves at extremely high pressures and temperatures in laboratory and quasi-laboratory conditions. The state of materials with high energy density generated by shock wave compression is discussed. In addition, the book aims to systematize, generalize, and describe from a universal viewpoint the extensive theoretical and experimental material on the physics of high energy densities - the physics and mechanics of intense shock waves. The book is based on lectures delivered by the author at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Higher School of Physics of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, as well as overviews presented at many scientific conferences and symposia. It is useful to a wide range of researchers in natural sciences, giving them access to original works and allowing them to navigate the fascinating problems of the modern science of intense shock waves.

Non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) are of intense interest in current low-temperature plasma research because of their immense potential for material processing and biomedical applications. Depending on the jet configuration and the electrical excitation, plasma characteristics including heat, charged particle, electric field, and chemically active species may differ significantly. Other important parameters of importance in these studies are the kind of utilized working gas and gas flow rate. This book presents the electrical characterization of DBD-based APPJs for three electrode arrangements: ring electrode, pin electrode and floating helix electrode configurations. The analysis presented here will serve to help in establishing an optimum range of operation for a cold plasma jet without arcing and without any physical damage to the electrodes. Furthermore, the experimental results provided in the book establish the significance of the type of working gas on the power consumption and on the jet length obtained. These developed cold DBD-based APPJs of larger lengths may be useful for diverse biological applications and surface treatments.

This book describes the linear theory of waves and instabilities that propagate in a collisionless plasma.

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a multiple-spacecraft Solar-Terrestrial Probe designed to study the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, charged particle acceleration, and turbulence in key boundary regions of Earth's magnetosphere. These three processes, which control the flow of energy, mass, and momentum within and across plasma boundaries, occur throughout the universe and are fundamental to our understanding of astrophysical and solar system plasmas.

Usually called the "fourth state of matter," plasmas make up more than 99% of known material. In usual terminology, this term generally refers to partially or totally ionized gas and covers a large number of topics with very different characteristics and behaviors. Over the last few decades, the physics and engineering of plasmas was experiencing a renewed interest, essentially born of a series of important applications such as thin-layer deposition, surface treatment, isotopic separation, integrated circuit etchings, medicine, etc. Plasma Science