Preface

Abstract

The Sun and heliosphere, the most accessible example of a magnetically variable star and its sphere of influence, are of renewed and increasing interest at the turn of the millennium. Recent space missions have provided startling, new insights into the physics of stellar interiors, atmospheres, and extended plasma and energetic particle interactions. An unprecedented array of such robot observatories, strategically located throughout the heliosphere and the geospace environment, has allowed us startling new insights into the Sun and its surroundings from solar minimum through the rise of cycle 23.