This book describes the relationship between the atmosphere and the external plasma of Earth in an unconventional manner. While the main mechanical energy is located in the dense atmosphere, the presence of Earth's plasma environment, which is immersed in the magnetosphere, causes a number of very interesting effects on the atmosphere. A list of such effects includes magnetic substorms, magnetic storms and aurora to the dynamics of the upper atmosphere, heating, thermal expansion, and vertical and horizontal winds. Particle precipitation produces excess ionization and electric currents, causes electric fields, affects recombination and modifies chemical reactions. These are processes which may become important in the climate. The collected articles provide an overview of these effects.

This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers active in the areas of atmospheric science and space science.

Previously published in Space Science Reviews, Vol. 168/1-4, 2012.

From the reviews:

"If you ever wanted to know almost everything about recent progress and highlights of research on the Earth's upper atmosphere, this book is an excellent choice for you. ? quality of the book is magnificent. It is evident that a lot of effort was spent to produce extremely informative figures, most of them in color, and to eradicate any typos to enable a most enjoyable and undisturbed reading experience. ? book offers advanced readers an encyclopedic overview of recent progress." (Martin Fullekrug, The Radio Science Bulletin, Issue 348, March, 2014)