Solar Gamma X And Euv Radiation

Proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 68 held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 11-14 June 1974, organized by the IAU in co-operation with COSPAR

At the XV. General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Sydney 1973, Commission 10 for Solar Activity requested the incoming Organising Committee to establish a small group to recommend a standard nomenclature for solar features and to prepare an illustrated text which would clear the jungle of terms for the benefit of solar physicists as well as of theoreticians and research workers in related fields. The challenge was taken up by the president of Commission 10, Prof. K. O. Kiepenheuer, and his persuasive advocacy has led eventually to the present book. In the course of the work, the declared aim but not the basic purpose was revised. Rather than prepare a list of standard terms, we have preferred to collect together all the terms that appear in current English-language literature. Synonyms and partially overlapping terms are all recorded for the most part without prejudice. Each has been defined as exactly as possible with the hope that in the future they may be used and understood without ambiguity. It would be a step on the road to standardisation if these terms were not re-used for new phenomena. New observations and new theories will lead to reappraisals and redefinitions so the Glossary is intended more as a guide to the present situation than as a rule-book.

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).