This volume provides a comprehensive overview of our
current observational knowledge and theoretical
understanding of the outer boundary of the Earth's
magnetic field: the magnetopause. All mass, momentum,
and energy transferred from the solar-wind plasma flow
into the geomagnetic cavity must cross the magnetopause.
The magnetopause itself is closely coupled to the
high-latitude ionosphere. For this reason, the volume
should be of interest not only to scientists and students
concerned with the physics of the magnetopause proper but
also to magnetospheric, ionospheric, and upper atmospheric
workers in general. Much of the material in the volume is
relevant to other planetary magnetopauses and, as an
example of an interface between two collisionless plasmas,
the Earth's magnetopause is also relevant in solar,
interplanetary, cosmic, and laboratory plasma physics.