Progress in magnetospheric physics: 1983–86

It has been a distinct pleasure, as well as an educational experience, to have served as associate editor for magnetospheric physics on this quadrennial report to IUGG. Fourteen authors and eighteen referees have done their utmost, despite the pressure of firm deadlines and the constraint of severe page limits, to make the magnetospheric report (consisting of the ten papers that follow) a valuable resource for the international space‐research community. Users of this report are encouraged to cite not only the original references found pertinent to their research but also the IUGG review article(s) in which those original references were compiled. Authors of the ten review articles that follow were asked to compile fairly complete lists of relevant papers based on work performed at institutions in the United States and published between late 1982 and late 1986. Additional papers could be cited in the interest of providing context or perspective. Review authors were not required to mention in text every article included in their reference lists. The reader should attach no stigma, however, to the omission of any paper from either the text or the reference list of an IUGG review article. Any omission may have been an oversight, or it may have been necessary for the flow or balance of a particular review.