Announcing a Seventh Special Issue of the
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
on Space and Cosmic Plasma
(Scheduled for August 2007)

0UR KNOWLEDGE of space and cosmic plasma has been in such a rapid state of advancement that it is appropriate to speak of a change in paradigm. This change started about a two decades ago and was precipitated by

a) In situ measurements of the properties of plasmas in the magnetospheres, leading to the confirmation of Birkeland field-aligned currents, double-layer acceleration of charged particles, magnetic flux ropes in the ionospheres of planets, and a system of currents in the magnetospheres of the outer planets;
b) Discovery of an immense, filamentary, magnetic field-aligned plasma structure at the center of our galaxy, helical and diocotron structures in space and the verification of the Critical Ionization Velocity (CIV) phenomena in interstellar space.
c) Laboratory experiments duplicating the power laws of electromagnetic radiation from extragalactic sources and confirming the plasma processes responsible for the acceleration of charged particles to high energies; and
d) The advent and application of multidimensional, relativistic, and fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations to replicate space and cosmic plasma measurements.

In recognition of the growing evidence that the basic properties of plasmas are the same everywhere, and the strong research interest in space and cosmic plasma since the appearance of the first Special Issue on this topic in December 1986, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE is devoting a Seventh Special Issue to Space and Cosmic Plasma. It is anticipated that the subject areas of interest will include the following:

• Instabilities and filamentation in space and cosmic plasma.
• The origin of electric and magnetic fields in cosmic plasma; electric fields in space.
• Electric currents in space; the formation of Birkeland current systems and their relation to the evolution of astrophysical bodies.
• Charged-particle acceleration in cosmic plasma.
• Electromagnetic radiation mechanisms in cosmic plasma.
• The role of plasma and electromagnetic fields in planetary, stellar, galaxy, and cluster formation; separation of elements.
• Laboratory astrophysics: Terrellas, pinches, dense plasma focus, and electrical discharges.
• Scaling laws and the transfer of knowledge between astrophysical, space, and laboratory plasmas.

The goals of this Special Issue are to provide an update on the progress in these areas and to report on the exchange of knowledge between plasmas of all dimensions in size hierarchy. Submission of observational, theoretical, experimental, and computational results is encouraged.

In the spirt of Alfvén, whose seminal work on galactic magnetic fields and electrical currents, cosmic ray acceleration, guiding center approximation, ring currents from trapped particles, limiting currents in particle beams, momentum of planets, hydromagnetic (Alfvén) waves, theory of sunspots, synchrotron radiation from astrophysical sources, collective ion acceleration, electric fields in space, theory of the solar system and stellar systems, critical ionization velocity, and the plasma universe preceded the accepted bounds of contemporary physics, speculative papers related to these topics will be considered as-well-as historical essays.

All contributions should reach the Guest Editors by November 17, 2006. Detailed instructions for authors can be found inside the back cover of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science and on the website: www.ieee.org/pubs/authors.html. Submissions are preferred through Manuscript CentralTM (http://tps-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com).

Guest Editors: