16 research outputs found
Contributions of Albert Einstein to Earth Sciences: A review in Commemoration of the World Year of Physics
The World Year of Physics (2005) is an international celebration to
commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of Einstein's "Annus Mirabilis". The
United Nations has officially declared 2005 the International Year of Physics.
However, the impact of Einstein's ideas was not restricted to physics. Among
numerous other disciplines, Einstein also made significant and specific
contributions to Earth Sciences. His geosciences-related letters, comments, and
scientific articles, are dispersed, not easily accesible and are poorly known.
The present review attempts to integrate them, as a tribute to Einstein in
commemoration of this centenary. These contributions can be classified into
three basic areas: geodynamics, geological (planetary) catastrophism and
fluvial geomorphology.Comment: 17 pages, no figures, to be published in Naturwissenschafte
Alfvén: magnetosphere-ionosphere connection explorers
The aurorae are dynamic, luminous displays that grace the night skies of Earthâs high latitude regions. The solar wind emanating from the Sun is their ultimate energy source, but the chain of plasma physical processes leading to auroral displays is complex. The special conditions at the interface between the solar wind-driven magnetosphere and the ionospheric environment at the top of Earthâs atmosphere play a central role. In this Auroral Acceleration Region (AAR) persistent electric fields directed along the magnetic field accelerate magnetospheric electrons to the high energies needed to excite luminosity when they hit the atmosphere. The âideal magnetohydrodynamicsâ description of space plasmas which is useful in much of the magnetosphere cannot be used to understand the AAR. The AAR has been studied by a small number of single spacecraft missions which revealed an environment rich in wave-particle interactions, plasma turbulence, and nonlinear acceleration processes, acting on a variety of spatio-temporal scales. The pioneering 4-spacecraft Cluster magnetospheric research mission is now fortuitously visiting the AAR, but its particle instruments are too slow to allow resolve many of the key plasma physics phenomena. The AlfvĂ©n concept is designed specifically to take the next step in studying the aurora, by making the crucial high-time resolution, multi-scale measurements in the AAR, needed to address the key science questions of auroral plasma physics. The new knowledge that the mission will produce will find application in studies of the Sun, the processes that accelerate the solar wind and that produce aurora on other planets