Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 86.

This volume addresses the issue of achieving agreement between space observations and that body of plasma theory that attempts to account for the interrelations of plasma behavior and electromagnetic inhomogeneities and fluctuations. It is difficult to assign a single name to this area of research, because most of the terms that might be used have specific and limiting technical connotations. However, though a single name has not yet been found, we can say that the space plasma phenomena considered in this volume may all be characterized as fluctuating, nonequilibrium, or turbulent, and that the processes which play important roles in determining the plasma behavior are stochastic, quasilinear, nonlinear, inhomogeneous, or nonlocal.