Since the discovery of the cluster soft excess (CSE) over eight years ago, its properties and origin have been the subject of debate. With the recent launch of new missions such as XMM-Newton and FUSE, we are beginning to answer some of the complex issues regarding the phenomenon. This conference proceedings is an attempt to bring together the latest research results and covers both observational and theoretical work on the CSE and related topics. One of the main topics is the possible relationship between the CSE and the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM), which is believed to harbor 50% of the baryons in the near Universe.

New data from both XMM-Newton and FUSE have indicated a possible causal link between the WHIM and CSE. Evidence is based on the apparent detection of O VII emission lines in the soft excess spectrum of the outskirts of several clusters, as well as reports of absorption lines at local and higher redshifts (seen in the spectra of distant sources) as signature of the WHIM. However, while there has been considerable optimism in attributing a substantial fraction of the cluster soft excess flux to WHIM emission, other work shows that, for example, the amount of WHIM material predicted by theoretical simulations falls way short of that necessary to account for the CSE. Other work indicates that at the cores of some cluster this excess emission is so strong, it is impossible to invoke the thermal model without at the same time enlisting radically new physics. Thus alternative interpretations involving non-thermal processes are also reported and being pursued in earnest.

Whatever the origin of CSE may turn out to be, results in this book show that it has become beyond reasonable doubt that the phenomenon itself is observationally established. This book reports the scientific progress made by bringing together scientists from a wide range of disciplines. It clearly demonstrates the importance of such meetings and participants if we are to solve this puzzle.

This volume is aimed at scientists and graduate students in astronomy who want to learn about the latest results on cluster soft excess observations and theoretical implications.

This illustrated monograph explores the fundamentals, current practice, and theoretical perspectives of modern plasma astrophysics. The opening part covers basic principles and practical tools for understanding and working with plasma astrophysics. The second section examines the physics of magnetic reconnection and flares of electromagnetic origin in space plasmas in the solar system, and more. Designed mainly for professional researchers, it will be useful to graduate students in space sciences and geophysics.

Planetary Aeronomy is a modern and concise introduction to the underlying physical and chemical processes that govern the formation and evolution of the upper atmospheres of planets. The general approach employed permits consideration of the growing number of extrasolar planets, the detailed observation of which will become possible over the next decades. The book explains the physics behind many atmospheric processes, which are relevant for the evolution of planetary atmospheres and their water inventories, and also contains useful scaling laws and analytical expressions that can be applied to any planet. Readers thus gain insight into the evolution of terrestrial planets and their long-time habitability, atmospheric stability, etc. This volume can be used both as graduate textbook for students wishing to specialize in the field as well as succinct compendium for researchers in the field.

Uncertainty for Everyone The one thing that is certain about the world is that the world is uncertain. I have here, the question that apart of the matter, living matter, has to resolve in each and every one of its moments of existance. The environment of a living being is apart of the living being where it turns out, the rest of the living beings live. This is the drama of life on earth. Every living individual debates with his environment, exchanging matter, energy and information in the hope of staying alive, the same as all living beings who share that same environment. The adven ture of a living being (of all living beings ) is to maintain reasonable independ ence in face ofthe fluctuations ofuncertainty within the environment. The range of restrictions and mutual relationships is colossal. How is the tran seendental pretension of staying alive regulated? There is an equation imposed by the laws ofthermodynamics and the mathematical theory ofinformation about the interaction ofa living being with his environment which we could state like this: The complexity 01 a living individual plus his capacity for anticipation in re spect to his environment is identical to the uncertainty of the environmentplus the capacity of that living being to change the environment."

For the very first time, this book provides updated, integrated and organized, theoretical and methodological information on regional climate change and the associated environmental and socio-economic impacts on a regional scale. The most recent findings in the field of long-term climate change, which improve our understanding of the global climate puzzle, will be presented. Readers are introduced to state-of-the-art research in downscaling and GCMs, which involve the construction of reliable regional climate scenarios and the solution to key problems regarding the assessment of the impacts of climate change in the most important geographical areas of the world, from the Arctic to Antarctic regions, with special emphasis on the Northern Hemisphere.

This volume contains the Proceedings of the Fifth Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanola de Astronomfa, SEA). The meeting was held at the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha in Toledo, from September 9 to 13, 2002. The event brought together 219 participants who pre sented their latest results in many different subjects. In comparison with the previous scientific meetings of the Society, the numbers of oral talks and poster contributions (122 and 64, respectively) are rapidly increasing, confirming that the SEA conferences are becoming a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. During the meeting, the SEA made public the granting of the Prize to the Best Spanish Ph. D. Thesis in As tronomy and Astrophysics for the period 2000-2001 ex aequo to Dr. A. Zurita and Dr. E. Villaver. This is the second time that the SEA is awarding this prize, which aim is to encourage young spanish astrophysicists to pursue a high level scientific career. The Society is indebted to the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, and, in particular, to the San Pedro Martir staff, for its hospitality. It is also indebted to the Local Organizing Committee for its dedication and the good atmosphere that prevailed at any moment, and to the Scientific Organizing Committee for its excel lent work."

Planetary nebulae are the classic subject of astrophysics. The physical pro cesses occurring in this highly ionized gaseous medium, the formation of emis sion lines in clearly specified conditions, the continuous emission extending from the far ultraviolet up to infrared and radio frequencies, the generation of exotic forms of radiation predicted by atomic physics, along with methods for deciphering the observed spectra and detecting physical and kinematic parameters of the radiating medium, etc. - all these problems form the solid foundations of the physical theory of gaseous nebulae. They are an essential part of the arsenal of powerful tools and concepts without which one cannot imagine understanding and interpreting the enormous diversity of processes taking place in the Universe - in gaseous envelopes surrounding the stars of various classes, from cool dwarfs and flare stars up to hot supergiants, as well as in stellar chromospheres and coronae, in atmospheres of unstable and anomalous stars, in circumstellar clouds and gaseous shells born in nova and supernova explosions, in diffuse nebulae and the interstellar medium, in interacting binary systems, in galaxies with emission lines, in quasars, etc. The last thirty years have seen a turning-point in our knowledge concern ing the very nature of planetary nebulae (PNs). The radio emission of PNs was discovered after it was predicted theoretically. On the other hand, the powerful infrared emission discovered both in the continuum and in emission lines was never expected."

Astromineralogy deals with the science of gathering mineralogical information from the astronomical spectroscopy of asteroids, comets and dust in the circumstellar environments in general. It is only recently, however, that this field has received a tremendous boost with the reliable identification of minerals by the Infrared Space Observatory. This book is the first comprehensive and coherent account of this exciting field. Beyond addressing the specialist in the field, the book is intended as a high-level but readable introduction to astromineralogy for both the nonspecialist researcher and the advanced student.

Andrew F. Nagy Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 139, Nos 1-4. DOI: 10. 1007/s11214-008-9353-0 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2008 Keywords Aeronomy The term "aeronomy" has been used widely for many decades, but its origin has mostly been lost over the years. It was introduced by Sydney Chapman in a Letter to the Editor, entitled "Some Thoughts on Nomenclature," in Nature in 1946 (Chapman 1946). In that letter he suggested that aeronomy should replace meteorology, writing that the word "meteor is now irrelevant and misleading." This proposal was apparently not received with much support so in a short note in Weather in 1953 Chapman (1953)wrote: "If, despite its obvious convenience of brevity in itself and its derivatives, it does not commend itself to aeronomers, I think there is a case for modifying my proposal so that instead of the word being used to signify the study of the atmosphere in general, it should be adopted with the restricted sense of the science of the upper atmosphere, for which there is no convenient short word. " In a chapter, he wrote in a 1960 book (Chapman 1960), he give his nal and de nitive de nition, by stating that "Aeronomy is the science of the upper region of the atmosphere, where dissociation and ionization are important." The Workshop on "Comparative Aeronomy" was held at ISSI during the week of June 25-29, 2007.

J.L. Burch.V. Angelopoulos Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 141, Nos 1-4, 1-3. DOI: 10.1007/s11214-008-9474-5 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 The Earth, like all the other planets, is continuously bombarded by the solar wind, which is variable on many time scales owing to its connection to the activity of the Sun. But the Earth is unique among planets because its atmosphere, magnetic eld, and rotation rates are each signi cant, though not dominant, players in the formation of its magnetosphere and its reaction to solar-wind inputs. An intriguing fact is that no matter what the time scale of solar-wind variations, the Earth's response has a de nite pattern lasting a few hours. Known as a magnetospheric substorm, the response involves a build-up, a crash, and a recovery. The build-up (known as the growth phase) occurs because of an interlinking of the geom- netic eld and the solar-wind magnetic eld known as magnetic reconnection, which leads to storage of increasing amounts of magnetic energy and stress in the tail of the mag- tosphere and lasts about a half hour. The crash (known as the expansion phase) occurs when the increased magnetic energy and stresses are impulsively relieved, the current system that supports the stretched out magnetic tail is diverted into the ionosphere, and bright, dynamic displays of the aurora appear in the upper atmosphere. The expansion and subsequent rec- ery phases result from a second magnetic reconnection event that decouples the solar-wind and geomagnetic elds."

The workshop "Nonhnear MHD Waves and Turbulence" was held at the - servatoire de Nice, December 1-4, 1998 and brought together an international group of experts in plasma physics, fluid dynamics and applied mathematics. The aim of the meeting was to survey the current knowledge on two main topics: (i) propagation of plasma waves (like Alfven, whistler or ion-acoustic waves), their instabilities and the development of a nonlinear dynamics lea ding to solitonic structures, wave collapse or weak turbulence; (ii) turbulence in magnetohydrodynamic flows and its reduced description in the presence of a strong ambient magnetic fleld. As is well known, both aspects play an important role in various geophysical or astrophysical media such as the - gnetospheres of planets, the heliosphere, the solar wind, the solar corona, the interplanetary and interstellar media, etc. This volume, which includes expanded versions of oral contributions pre sented at this meeting, should be of interest for a large community of resear chers in space plasmas and nonlinear sciences. Special effort was made to put the new results into perspective and to provide a detailed literature review. A main motivation was the attempt to relate more closely the theoretical un derstanding of MHD waves and turbulence (both weak and strong) with the most recent observations in space plasmas. Some papers also bring interesting new insights into the evolution of hydrodynamic or magnetohydrodynamic structures, based on systematic asymptotic methods."

This volume presents the edited lecture notes of the First JETSET School on Jets from Young Stars: Models and Constraints, held by the Marie Curie Research and Training Network on JET Simulations, Experiments and Theory. The first half of the book is devoted to general observational constraints. The second section is devoted to theoretical knowledge of magneto-hydrodynamic processes pertinent to the jet launching mechanism in young stars.

This volume contains the Proceedings of the Fourth Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanola de Astronomfa, SEA). The meeting was held at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Galicia from September 11 to 14, 2000. The event brought together 156 participants who pre- sented their latest results in many different subjects. In comparison with the previous scientific meetings of the Society, the numbers of oral talks and poster contributions (95 and 51, respectively) are rapidly increasing, confirming that the SEA conferences are becoming a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. During the meeting, the SEA made public the granting of the Prize to the Best Spanish Ph. D. Thesis in As- tronomy and Astrophysics for the period 1998-1999 to Dr. H. Socas. This is the first time that the SEA is awarding this prize, which aim is to encourage young spanish astrophysicists to pursue a high level scientific career. The Society is indebted to the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, and, in particular, to the Observatorio Astronomico Ramon Marfa Aller, for its hospi- tality. The Local Organizing Committee took care of all the logistics details to ensure a nice stay for all the participants. The effort of the Scientific Organizing Committee was decisive in determining the organizational and scientific success of the meeting.

This book was conceived during the Workshop "Calibration and Orientation of Cameras in Computer Vision" at the XVIIth Congress of the ISPRS (In ternational Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), in July 1992 in Washington, D. C. The goal of this workshop was to bring photogrammetry and computer vision experts together in order to exchange ideas, concepts and approaches in camera calibration and orientation. These topics have been addressed in photogrammetry research for a long time, starting in the sec ond half of the 19th century. Over the years standard procedures have been developed and implemented, in particular for metric cameras, such that in the photogrammetric community such issues were considered as solved prob lems. With the increased use of non-metric cameras (in photogrammetry they are revealingly called "amateur" cameras), especially CCD cameras, and the exciting possibilities of acquiring long image sequences quite effortlessly and processing image data automatically, online and even in real-time, the need to take a new and fresh look at various calibration and orientation issues became obvious. Here most activities emerged through the computer vision commu nity, which was somewhat unaware as to what had already been achieved in photogrammetry. On the other hand, photogrammetrists seemed to ignore the new and interesting studies, in particular on the problems of orienta tion, that were being performed by computer vision experts."

Chaos theory plays an important role in modern physics and related sciences, but -, the most important results so far have been obtained in the study of gravitational systems applied to celestial mechanics. The present set of lectures introduces the mathematical methods used in the theory of singularities in gravitational systems, reviews modeling techniques for the simulation of close encounters and presents the state of the art about the study of diffusion of comets, wandering asteroids, meteors and planetary ring particles. The book will be of use to researchers and graduate students alike.

This is quite simply the first volume of its kind dedicated to the area of high time resolution astrophysics. High time resolution astrophysics (HTRA) is an important new window on the universe and a vital tool in understanding a range of phenomena from diverse objects and radiative processes. Underlining this science foundation, technological developments in both instrumentation and detectors are described.

Galaxies have a history. This has become clear from recent sky surveys, which have shown that distant galaxies, formed early in the life of the Universe, differ from the nearby ones. New observational windows at ultraviolet, infrared and millimetric wavelengths (provided by ROSAT, IRAM, IUE, IRAS, ISO) have revealed that galaxies contain a wealth of components: very hot gas, atomic hydrogen, molecules, dust, dark matter. A significant advance is expected due to new instruments (VLT, FIRST, XMM) which will allow one to explore the most distant Universe. Three Euroconferences have been planned to punctuate this new epoch in galactic research, bringing together specialists in various fields of Astronomy. The first, held in Granada (Spain) in May 2000, addressed the observational clues. The second will take place in October 2001 in St Denis de la Reunion (France) and will review the basic building blocks and small-scale processes in galaxy evolution. The third will take place in July 2002 in Kiel (Germany) and will be devoted to the overall modelling of galaxy evolution. This book contains the proceedings of the first conference. It is recommended to researchers and PhD students in Astrophysics."

C. T. Russell Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 136, Nos 1-4. DOI: 10. 1007/s11214-008-9344-1 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2008 The Sun-Earth Connection is now an accepted fact. It has a signi cant impact on our daily lives, and its underpinnings are being pursued vigorously with missions such as the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, commonly known as STEREO. This was not always so. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that Edward Sabine connected the 11-year geomagnetic cycle with Heinrich Schwabe's deduction of a like periodicity in the sunspot record. The clincher for many was Richard Carrington's sighting of a great whi- light are on the Sun, on September 1, 1859, followed by a great geomagnetic storm 18 hours later. But was the Sun-Earth Connection signi cant to terrestrial denizens? Perhaps in 1859 it was not, but a century later it became so. Beginning in the 1930's, as electrical powergrids grew in size, powercompanies began to realize that they occasionally had power blackouts during periods of intense geomagnetic activity. This correlation did not appear to be suf ciently signi cant to bring to the attention of the public but during the International Geophysical Year (IGY), when geomagnetic activity was being scrutinized intensely, the occurrence of a large North American power blackout during a great magnetic storm was impossible to ignore.

Over the past ten years, the discovery of extrasolar planets has opened a new field of astronomy, and this area of research is rapidly growing, from both the observational and theoretical point of view. The presence of many giant exoplanets in the close vicinity of their star shows that these newly discovered planetary systems are very different from the solar system. New theoretical models are being developed in order to understand their formation scenarios, and new observational methods are being implemented to increase the sensitivity of exoplanet detections. In the present book, the authors address the question of planetary systems from all aspects. Starting from the facts (the detection of more than 300 extraterrestrial planets), they first describe the various methods used for these discoveries and propose a synthetic analysis of their global properties. They then consider the observations of young stars and circumstellar disks and address the case of the solar system as a specific example, different from the newly discovered systems. Then the study of planetary systems and of exoplanets is presented from a more theoretical point of view. The book ends with an outlook to future astronomical projects, and a description of the search for life on exoplanets. This book addresses students and researchers who wish to better understand this newly expanding field of research.

It was with pleasure that CAUP became for three days the core to the cloud of star formation experts all over the world. Close to the celebration of its 15th anniversary - therefore still in the early stages of institutional evolution - we are proud of our multiple activities in Astronomy: a productive research centre, classi?ed as "Institution of excellence" within the Portuguese research units, but also an "Institution of Public Utility" as recognised by the Government. Fifteen years ago we choose to play a role not only in research, as expected from any research centre but also in the training of the future astronomers and the promotion of science and scienti?c culture. This choice is clearly stated in our by-laws and also in the multiple activities we have carried out since. Along the years we have organized on a regular basis international Workshops similar to "Cores to Clusters." Sometimes we have chosen to organize int- national conferences of a larger size. On other occasions the choice has been for smaller and more informal discussion meetings. Or even doctoral schools with very different objectives. In common all those meetings have always had, besides the formal registered participants, a group of informal participants, our undergraduate students of Astronomy, so eager to be in touch with the real world.

This volume is the outgrowth of several international meetings to discuss a vision for the future of solar radio physics: the development of a new radio instrument. From these discussions, the concept for the Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope (FASR) was born. Most of the chapters of this book are based oninvitedtalksattheFASRScienceWorkshop,heldinGreenbank,WVinMay 2002, and a special session on Solar and Space Weather Radiophysics held at the 200th American Astronomical Society meeting held in Albuquerque, NM in June 2002. Although many of the chapters deal with topics of interest in planning for FASR, other topics in Solar and Space Weather Radiophysics, such as solar radar and interplanetary scintillation, are covered to round out the discipline. The authors have been asked to write with a tutorial approach, to make the book useful to graduate students and scientists new to radio physics. This book is more than a compilation of FASR science topics. The FASR instrument concept is so revolutionary-by extending capability by an order of magnitude in several dimensions at once (frequency coverage, spatial reso- tion,dynamicrange,timeresolution,polarizationprecision)-thatitchallenges scientiststothinkinnewways. Theauthorsofthefollowingchaptershavebeen taskednotonlywithreviewingthecurrentstateofthe?eld,butalsowithlooking to the future and imagining what is possible. Radio emission is extremely complex because it is generated so readily, and every imaginable plasma parameter affects it. This is both its great strength and its weakness.

Presenting some of the most recent results of Russian research into shock compression, as well as historical overviews of the Russian research programs into shock compression, this volume will provide Western researchers with many novel ideas and points of view. The chapters in this volume are written by leading Russian specialists various fields of high-pressure physics and form accounts of the main researches on the behavior of matter under shock-wave interaction. The experimental portions contain results of studies of shock compression of metals to high and ultra-high pressure, shock initiation of polymorphic transformations, strength, fracture and fragmentation under shock compression, and detonation of condensed explosives. There are also chapters on theoretical investigations of shock-wave compression and plasma states in regimes of high-pressure and high- temperature. The topics of the book are of interest to scientists and engineers concerned with questions of material behavior under impulsive loading and to the equation of state of matter. Application is to questions of high-speed impact, inner composition of planets, verification of model representations of material behavior under extreme 1oading conditions, syntheses of new materials, development of new technologies for material processing, etc. Russian research differs from much of the Western work in that it has traditionally been wider-ranging and more directed to extremes of response than to precise characterization of specific materials and effects. Western scientists could expect to benefit from the perspective gained from close knowledge of the Russian work.

Based on material delivered at several summer schools, this book is the first comprehensive textbook at the graduate level encompassing all aspects associated with the emerging field of astrobiology.

Volume II gathers another set of extensive lectures covering topics so diverse as the formation and the distribution of elements in the universe, the concept of habitability from both the planetologists' and the biologists' point of view and artificial life. The contributions are held together by the common goal to understand better the origin of life, its evolution and possible existence outside the Earth's realm.
The volume ends with 120 pages of a very useful appendix comprising "Some Astrophysical Reminders," "Useful Astrobiological Data" and "An Astrobiological Glossary."

This book reviews the current state of knowledge of the atmospheres of the giant gaseous planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The current theories of their formation are reviewed and their recently observed temperature, composition and cloud structures are contrasted and compared with simple thermodynamic, radiative transfer and dynamical models. The instruments and techniques that have been used to remotely measure their atmospheric properties are also reviewed, and the likely development of outer planet observations over the next two decades is outlined.
This second edition has been extensively updated following the Cassini mission results for Jupiter/Saturn and the newest ground-based measurements for Uranus/Neptune as well as on the latest development in the theories on planet formation.

Here is a fascinating text that integrates topics pertaining to all scales of the MHD-waves, emphasizing the linkages between the ULF-waves below the ionosphere on the ground and magnetospheric MHD-waves. It will be most helpful to graduate and post-graduate students, familiar with advanced calculus, who study the science of MHD-waves in the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The book deals with Ultra-Low-Frequency (ULF)-electromagnetic waves observed on the Earth and in Space.