Observational Plasma Astrophysics: Five Years of Yohkoh and Beyond

Since its launch in 1991, the Yohkoh satellite has been returning unprecedented observations of solar flares and the dynamic solar corona. This text is a collection of papers presented at a meeting held in Yoyogi, Tokyo, on the occasion of Yohkoh's fifth anniversary of operation. The papers constitute a summary of observations and results over the five years, including contributions based on data from Yohkoh's hard and soft X-ray telescopes and its spectrometer experiments. The five years of data, covering approximately one-half of a solar cycle, reveal a fresh perspective on solar science, with a new picture of solar flares and the active Sun emerging. Also,there are results from Yohkoh observations of the Sun during the solar minimum period. This wide-ranging volume will be of interest to workers in solar physics and X-ray astronomy. It also contains material appropriate for supplemental reading for graduate students in solar physics.