Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 58.

The American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference on the Physics of Magnetic Flux Ropes was held at the Hamilton Princess Hotel, Hamilton, Bermuda on March 27–31, 1989. Topics discussed ranged from solar flux ropes, such as photospheric flux tubes, coronal loops and prominences, to flux ropes in the solar wind, in planetary ionospheres, at the Earth's magnetopause, in the geomagnetic tail and deep in the Earth's magnetosphere. Papers presented at that conference form the nucleus of this book, but the book is more than just a proceedings of the conference. We have solicited articles from all interested in this topic. Thus, there is some material in the book not discussed at the conference. Even in the case of papers presented at the conference, there is generally a much more detailed and rigorous presentation than was possible in the time allowed by the oral and poster presentations.