... 1 Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia . ... Classic concept of magnetic merging is represented by pair of flux tubes originating from two interacting magnetic fields reconnected at X-line. This type of reconnection between interplanetary magnetic field and magnetospheric magnetic field received very substantial confirmation from observations. ... We use Interball-Tail observations of ion velocity distributions within magnetospheric boundary layer as tracers of magnetic topology. ...

... Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau , Germany ; Институт космических исследований . ... In particular, a systematic and long-term survey of the atmosphere was missing, and most aspects of atmospheric behaviour remained puzzling. After the Magellan radar mapping mission ended in 1994, there followed a hiatus of more than a decade in Venus research, until the European Space Agency (ESA) took up the challenge and sent its own spacecraft to our planetary neighbour . ...