The launch in October 1990 of the joint ESA-NASA Ulysses mission marked the start of a new era in the study of the heliosphere. For the fIrst time, in-situ observations are being made covering the full range of heliographic latitudes. Following the successful gravity-assist manoeuvre at Jupiter in February 1992, Ulysses left the ecliptic plane in a southerly direction and headed back toward the Sun, passing over the southern solar pole in mid-1994. To mark these unique events, the 28th ESLAB Symposium, held in Friedrichs hafen, Germany, on 19-21 April 1994, was devoted to "The High Latitude Helio sphere." Following on from the highly successful 19th ESLAB Symposium "The Sun and the Heliosphere in Three Dimensions" (Les Diablerets, 1985), the purpose of the meeting was to review out-of-ecliptic results from the Ulysses mission obtained to date, and to provide a focus for the fIrst polar pass. Relevant results from other space missions, as well as ground-based and theoretical studies, were also included. Attended by 130 scientists, the main themes of the Symposium were The Sun and Corona, Large-Scale Heliospheric Structure, Energetic Particles in the Heliosphere, Cosmic Rays in the Heliosphere, and Interstellar Gas and Cosmic Dust. The scientifIc programme consisted of a number of Topical Review papers introducing various as pects of these themes, supplemented by a large number of contributed papers (72 in to tal) presented either orally or as posters. Undoubtedly, the excellent poster sessions formed one of the highlights of the meeting."

The 19th ESLAB Symposium on 'The Sun and the Heliosphere in Three Dimensions' was held in Les Diablerets (Switzerland) on 4-6 June 1985. Organised almost exactly ten years after the Goddard Space Fl i ght Center Sympos i um dea 1 i ng with the Sun and the i nterp 1 anetary medium in three dimensions, the aim of this Symposium was not only to review the progress made in understanding the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of the heliosphere, but also to look ahead to the scientific return to be expected from the Ulysses mission. Scheduled for launch in May 1986, the scientific instrumentation on board Ulysses will shed light on the conditions and processes occurring away from the ecliptic plane, thereby adding literally a new dimension to our understanding of the only stellar plasmasphere to which we have direct access. The scientific programme of the Symposium was built around a series of invited review papers dealing with aspects of the corona and its influence on the interplanetary medium via transient ejecta, the solar wind, energetic solar particles and galactic cosmic rays, interplanetary dust and neutral gas. These invited talks were supplemented by a number of contributed and poster papers. With the exception of three contributed talks and Wibberenz' review of coronal and acceleration of energetic particles, all papers propagation presented at the Symposium are included in this volume.

Our knowledge of the heliosphere in three dimensions near solar minimum has advanced significantly in the last 10 years, largely as a result of the on-going ESAINASA Ulysses mission. Similar advances in our understanding of the global heliosphere near solar maximum are to be expected with the return of Ulysses to high solar latitudes in 2000/200 I. With this in mind, the 34th ESLAB Symposium, held at ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, on 3-6 October, 2000, was devoted to 'The 3-D Heliosphere at Solar Maximum'. This was the third ESLAB Sympo sium focusing on the three-dimensional heliosphere (previous symposia being in 1985 and 1994), and the timing was particularly appropriate, marking as it did the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Ulysses spacecraft. Furthermore, Ulysses had just started its third high-latitude pass, the second over the Sun's south polar regions. The symposium addressed a wide range of topics related to the solar-maximum heliosphere, with presentations on many of the latest findings from Ulysses and other space-based missions. Ground-based studies and theoretical modeling were also well represented. Specific questions to which answers were sought included the following.

The 19th ESLAB Symposium on 'The Sun and the Heliosphere in Three Dimensions' was held in Les Diablerets (Switzerland) on 4-6 June 1985. Organised almost exactly ten years after the Goddard Space Fl i ght Center Sympos i um dea 1 i ng with the Sun and the i nterp 1 anetary medium in three dimensions, the aim of this Symposium was not only to review the progress made in understanding the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of the heliosphere, but also to look ahead to the scientific return to be expected from the Ulysses mission. Scheduled for launch in May 1986, the scientific instrumentation on board Ulysses will shed light on the conditions and processes occurring away from the ecliptic plane, thereby adding literally a new dimension to our understanding of the only stellar plasmasphere to which we have direct access. The scientific programme of the Symposium was built around a series of invited review papers dealing with aspects of the corona and its influence on the interplanetary medium via transient ejecta, the solar wind, energetic solar particles and galactic cosmic rays, interplanetary dust and neutral gas. These invited talks were supplemented by a number of contributed and poster papers. With the exception of three contributed talks and Wibberenz' review of coronal and acceleration of energetic particles, all papers propagation presented at the Symposium are included in this volume.

The Symposium on which the present book is based focused on out-of-ecliptic results obtained by the highly successful Ulysses mission prior to the start of its first polar pass. Topics addressed include the solar corona, the large-scale structure of the solar wind and heliosphere, energetic particles and cosmic rays, and interstellar gas and cosmic dust. The papers published here provide an up-to-date account of our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the heliosphere near solar minimum. Particular emphasis is placed on in-situ measurements made by Ulysses covering the range of solar latitudes from the Equator to 50 degrees South.