Space plasma physics at the Applied Physics Laboratory over the past half-century

Exploration of our planet's space plasma environment began with the use of ground-based radio propagation experiments and with instruments carried to high altitudes by balloons and rockets. The Applied Physics Laboratory was intimately involved in these pioneering activities through the work of its first director, Merle A. Tuve, and one of its first staff members, James A. Van Allen. During the past half-century, the Laboratory's space plasma physics activities have evolved into a major and multifaceted effort involving the observation and study of phenomena from the Earth's atmosphere to the Sun and beyond to the outer planets and heliosphere. Space plasma physics has become a mature scientific discipline that now more than ever provides many challenges and promises of exciting discoveries for APL scientists in the future.