num_pages: 386
description: Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 30. Magnetic reconnection is now widely believed to be a crucial process in cosmic plasmas, being the means by which their magnetic topologies are determined and by which energy stored in magnetic fields is released rapidly to produce such phenomena as solar flares and magnetospheric substorms. Furthermore, reconnection has been found to play important roles in several areas of fusion research. This monograph reviews the basic concepts of the magnetic reconnection phenomenon. It describes the observational and theoretical evidence for the occurrence of reconnection in space plasmas, and it discusses the roles of reconnection in laboratory plasmas where the reconnection process offers practical benefits in some magnetic fusion experiments. The book is based on a Chapman Conference on Magnetic Reconnection and contains most of the papers presented at the conference as well as much of the discussion of them. The conference was held at the Los Alamos National Laboratory October 3-7, 1983 and was attended by 130 scientists, citizens of more than a dozen countries.
language: English
title: Magnetic Reconnection in Space and Laboratory Plasmas
titlecomplete: Magnetic Reconnection in Space and Laboratory Plasmas (Geophysical Monograph Series)
publisher: American Geophysical Union