Recent Advances , Open Questions and Future Directions in Solar - Terrestrial Research

The International Symposium on SolarTerrestrial Coupling Processes was held in Paros, Greece, on June 23-27,1997. The Symposium was sponsored by NASA, the European Geophysical Society, the Greek Ministry of the Aegean, and the Greek Ministry of Development. It was attended by 85 scientists from 13 countries, and included six sessions on topics ranging from Interplanetary Disturbances to Particle Acceleration. In addition to the six sessions a panel discussion session was held. Seven scientists reported on recent advances, open questions and future directions in solar-terrestrial research. This review paper is based on the panelists' reports and includes individual sections on seven particular topics of special interest to solarterrestrial research. The topics range from the significance of solar wind composition and interplanetary disturbances to promising new technologies and methods. Solar-terrestrial research deserves the special attention of the scientific community, both because of the attractive physics underlying the various phenomena associated with them, as well as because of the applied aspect of the sometimes destructive effects of solar-terrestrial coupling on a wide variety of technological systems.