Term “heliophysics” (Russian: “гелиофизика”) was widely used in Russian-language scientific literature. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia third edition (1969—1978) defines “Heliophysics” as “[…] a division of astrophysics  that studies physics of the Sun". In 1990, the Higher Attestation Commission, responsible for the advanced academic  degrees in Soviet Union and later in Russia and the Former Soviet Union, established a new specialty “Heliophysics and physics of solar system”. In English-language scientific literature prior to about 2002, the term heliophysics was sporadically used to describe the study of the "physics of the Sun". As such it was a direct translation from the French "héliophysique" and the Russian "гелиофизика". Around 2002, Joseph M. Davila and Barbara J. Thompson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center adopted the term in their preparations of what became known as the International Heliophysical Year (2007–2008), following 50 years after the International Geophysical Year; in adopting the term for this purpose, they expanded its meaning to encompass the entire domain of influence of the Sun (the heliosphere). As an early advocate of the newly expanded meaning, George Siscoe offered the following characterization: "Heliophysics [encompasses] environmental science, a unique hybrid between meteorology and astrophysics, comprising a body of data and a set of paradigms (general laws—perhaps mostly still undiscovered) specific to magnetized plasmas and neutrals in the heliosphere interacting with themselves and with gravitating bodies and their atmospheres."
