Nature of turbulence, dissipation, and heating in space plasmas: From Alfven waves to kinetic Alfven waves

The nature of turbulence, dissipation, and heating in plasma media has been an attractive and challenge problem in space physics as well as in basic plasma physics. A wide continuous spectrum of Alfvenic turbulence from large MHD-scale Alfven waves (AWs) in the inertial turbulence regime to small kinetic-scale kinetic AWs (KAWs) in the dissipation turbulence regime is a typical paradigm of plasma turbulence. The incorporation of current remote observations of AWs in the solar atmosphere, in situ satellite measurements of Alfvenic turbulence in the solar wind, and experimental investigations of KAWs on large plasma devices in laboratory provides a chance synthetically to study the physics nature of plasma turbulence, dissipation, and heating. A session entitled "Nature of Turbulence, Dissipation, and Heating in Space Plasmas: From Alfven Waves to Kinetic Alfven Waves" was held as a part of the twelfth Asia Oceania Geosciences Society Annual Meeting, which took place in Singapore between 2 and 7 August 2015. This special section is organized based on the session.