Inner Magnetosphere Coupling 2; Los Angeles, California, 19–22 March 2012 Solar activity can energize Earth's magnetosphere. Coupled plasma interactions—involving multiscale electromagnetic fields, currents, and waves—either dissipate this energy into the ionosphere (to influence upper atmospheric chemistry and possibly climate) or store it in belts of highly energetic particles in the inner magnetosphere. Decades of effort have advanced knowledge of this system, but understanding of the coupling processes is still very incomplete.