J. Moen, A. England and M. Lockwood (eds.), Polar Cap Boundary Phenomena

Abstract

This volume contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Polar Cap Boundary Phenomena held at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway on June 4–13, 1997, which was the third NATO Workshop on magnetospheric boundary phenomena observable at high latitudes. Svalbard has a uniquely interesting location from observational point of view in that the dayside aurora can be observed there in the noon local time sector during the midwinter. The Norwegian groups working at Svalbard were the organisers of this third workshop as well as of the two earlier ones, but only this third one was held at Svalbard. It was attended by 86 space physicists from all over the world. The book contains 36 papers, of which the majority were presented as invited papers at the workshop, a few were contributed papers and the last paper in the volume gives a summary of the content of the workshop.

As emphasized in both the Foreword and the Summary chapter of the book, the research field of the polar cap and its boundaries to other magnetospheric regions at high latitudes is one that has seen a fast development in the last ten years. This is to a great deal due to the research work done at Svalbard in combination with satellite measurements and theory development. The review in these proceedings provide also the non-specialist reader with good summaries of where different research questions stand at present.