Special issue: Present achievements and new frontiers in space plasmas

Extract

Space plasma physics, pushed by the impressive recent technological developments, is undergoing a period of intense progress. This progress is achieved first at the level of observations, including both remote and in situ measurements, but also on the theoretical side, mainly by means of large scale numerical simulations made possible by the dramatic increase of computational resources. In particular, three-dimensional mainly hybrid but also fully kinetic simulations are today feasible, and large intervals in spatial and time scales can at last be accessed by fluid simulations. Addressing fundamental problems such as, e.g. magnetic reconnection, nonlinear dynamics or turbulence development in the kinetic range, are no longer just a heart's desire today.