This book makes good background reading for much of modern magnetospheric physics. Its origin
was a Festspiel for Professor Jim Dungey former professor in the Physics Department at
Imperial College on the occasion of his 90th birthday 30 January 2013. Remarkably although he
retired 30 years ago his pioneering and often maverick work in the 50¿s through to the 70¿s
on solar terrestrial physics is probably more widely appreciated today than when he retired.
Dungey was a theoretical plasma physicist. The book covers how his reconnection model of the
magnetosphere evolved to become the standard model of solar-terrestrial coupling. Dungey¿s open
magnetosphere model now underpins a holistic picture explaining not only the magnetic and
plasma structure of the magnetosphere but also its dynamics which can be monitored in real
time. The book also shows how modern day simulation of solar terrestrial coupling can reproduce
the real time evolution of the solar terrestrial system in ways undreamt of in 1961 when
Dungey¿s epoch-making paper was published. Further contributions on current Earth magnetosphere
research and space plasma physics included in this book show how Dungey¿s basic ideas have
remained explanative 50 years on. But the Festspiel also introduced some advances that possibly
Dungey had not foreseen. One of the contributions presented in this book is on the variety of
magnetospheres of the solar system which have been seen directly during the space age
discussing the variations in spatial scale and reconnection time scale and comparing them in
respect of Earth Mercury the giant planets as well as Ganymede.
