Plasma processes in the expansion of the solar wind and in the interplanetary medium

This article is aimed at reviewing research in plasma processes in the expansion of the solar wind and in the interplanetary medium for the period 1971–1974. However, this report is not a comprehensive review of the field, which would not be in the spirit of this series of reports; in any case, considerations of time and length prohibit such a review article. On the other hand, it would be inappropriate to present nothing more than a bibliography. The middle ground, adopted for this article, is to emphasize those research developments which, in the author's judgment, have been most important in the past 4 years, in addition to a complete bibliography of the field. Obviously, such a policy means that a number of significant papers will not be mentioned in the text. Therefore it is proper to offer a brief explanation of how the emphasis in the text was chosen.