Magnetic Fields in the Solar System: Planets, Moons and Solar Wind Interactions

This book addresses and reviews many of the still little understood questions related to the processes underlying planetary magnetic fields and their interaction with the solar wind. With focus on research carried out within the German Priority Program ”PlanetMag”, it also provides an overview of the most recent research in the field.

Magnetic fields play an important role in making a planet habitable by protecting the environment from the solar wind. Without the geomagnetic field, for example, life on Earth as we know it would not be possible. And results from recent space missions to Mars and Venus strongly indicate that planetary magnetic fields play a vital role in preventing atmospheric erosion by the solar wind. However, very little is known about the underlying interaction between the solar wind and a planet’s magnetic field.

The book takes a synergistic interdisciplinary approach that combines newly developed tools for data acquisition and analysis,computer simulations of planetary interiors and dynamos, models of solar wind interaction, measurement of ancient terrestrial rocks and meteorites, and laboratory investigations.

Hermann Lühr was Professor of Geophysics at Technical University Braunschweig and Senior Scientist at Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ, Potsdam, Germany. He has been (Co-) PI of several research projects and space missions, served on various committees and has won a series of prestigious prizes. His scientific interests include geomagnetism, magnetospheric/ionospheric physics, plasma physics, current systems, upper atmosphere, space weather, and  instrument development. 

Johannes Wicht is a research staff member at MPS Göttingen, Germany. 

Stuart Gilder is Professor of Geophysics at Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. Before arriving in Germany he served as Director of the Geomagnetic Observatories of the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France. His research interests mostly focus on paleomagnetism and the effects of high pressures on magnetic properties using the diamond anvil cell.

Matthias Holschneider is Professor of applied Mathematics at the University of Potsdam, Germany and Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Dynamics of Complex Systems (DYCOS).