Abstract/Summary

In 1961, James W. Dungey published a remarkable two-page paper in Physics Review Letters that revolutionized our understanding of the Earth's magnetosphere. In it, he used his concept of “magnetic reconnection” to introduce the open magnetosphere model. Dungey died in 2015 but his idea does a great deal more than just live on in the literature. In addition to making sense of the magnetosphere, it has established key applications in astrophysics, planetary physics, solar and heliospheric physics, and fusion energy research – in fact, any area involving ionized gases threaded by magnetic fields. It is now the basis of our understanding and prediction of space weather phenomena.