NASA NTRS1987
The sixth biennial Yosemite topical conference and the first as a Chapman Conference was held on February 3 to 6, 1986. Due to the recent changes in our perception of the dynamics of the ionospheric/magnetospheric system, it was deemed timely to bring researchers together to discuss and contrast the relative importance of solar versus terrestrial sources of magnetospheric plasma. Although the solar wind was once thought to dominate the supply of plasma in the Earth's magnetosphere, it is now thought that the Earth's ionosphere is a significant contributor. Polar wind and other large volume outflows of plasma have been seen at relatively high altitudes over the polar cap and are now being correlated with outflows found in the magnetotail. The auroral ion fountain and cleft ion fountain are examples of ionospheric sources of plasma in the magnetosphere, observed by the Dynamics Explorer 1 (DE 1) spacecraft. The conference was organized into six sessions: four consisting of prepared oral presentations, one poster session, and one session for open forum discussion. The first three oral sessions dealt separately with the three major topics of the conference, i.e., the sources, mechanisms, and consequences of ionospheric plasma in the magnetosphere. A special session of invited oral presentations was held to discuss extraterrestrial ionospheric/magnetospheric plasma processes. The poster session was extended over two evenings during which presenters discussed their papers on a one-on-one basis. The last session of the conferences was reserved for open discussions of those topics or ideas considered most interesting or controversial.