  A paper published by Scottish geophysicist J.A. Broun in 1858 contained
several pioneering and remarkable ideas in solar-terrestrial physics. He could
anticipate more or less correctly the nature and origin of solar wind, solar
magnetic fields, sunspot activity and geomagnetic storms in the middle of the
19th century. Broun applied the experimental results of the behavior of ionized
gases in discharge tubes for the first time to Space Physics which may be
considered as the beginning of the astrophysical plasma physics. In this
context he attempted to explain the plasma interactions of solar wind with the
comet tails and earth's magnetosphere. Most of the postulates or hypotheses put
forward by Broun in 1858 and later in 1874 was rediscovered during the 20th
century, after the advent of Space age.
