Basic Plasma Processes in Solar-Terrestrial Activities

Within the known universe,more than 99%of all observable matter is plasma,a state often highly dynamic and far from thermal,as well as mechanical,equilibrium.In particular,for our own solar-terrestrial system,various plasma active phenomena frequently occur such as solar flares,coronal plasma heating,solar wind acceleration,and coronal mass ejections in the solar atmosphere;interplanetary magnetic clouds and collisionless shock waves in interplanetary space;and

Within the known universe, more than 99% of all observable matter is plasma, a state often highly dynamic and far from thermal, as well as mechanical, equilibrium. In particular, for our own solar-terrestrial system, various plasma active phe- nomena frequently occur such as solar flares, coronal plasma heating, solar wind acceleration, and coronal mass ejections in the solar atmosphere; interplanetary magnetic clouds and collisionless shock waves in interplanetary space; and geomagnetic storms and substorms （also called Earth＇s aurora） in Earth＇s magnetosphere and ionosphere. Such phenomena are not only the most important events that are changing the space environment around our anthrosphere, but also provide natural laboratories for us to study in detail basic plasma processes encountered in astrophysics.