Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufmsm51b0528l&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #SM51B-0528
Other
2704 Auroral Phenomena (2407), 2748 Magnetotail Boundary Layers, 2760 Plasma Convection (2463), 2764 Plasma Sheet, 2790 Substorms
Scientific paper
What has for many years been referred to as the "plasma sheet boundary layer," or the PSBL, is proving not to be a near-planar high-latitude layer of continuous proton field-aligned flows, but a high-latitude region of recurring bursts of protons (and electrons) with time-dispersed thermal energies and narrow filamentary structures. This is evident from Polar and Cluster ion composition measurements made at 4 to 7 Earth radii (RE) distance. As first implied by the Polar observations and later confirmed by the multipoint Cluster observations, these proton bursts have a transverse fine structure that may span but a few gyroradii of a 10-keV proton at these altitudes. The rate of energy dispersion varies a great deal, indicating a burst source that is more than 100 RE down the tail at times, but may be inside of 20 RE at other times. The latter is where most observations of earthward directed "bursty bulk flows" of protons, or BBFs, have been made near the equatorial plane. That there is a likely connection between the two kinds of proton flows is suggested by (1) the similarly bursty and structured nature of both and (2) the fact that the BBFs are invariably associated with a transient local increase of the northward tail Bz component, without an increase in the Bx; a process that probably allows the equatorial plasma to expand earthward along higher-latitude field lines. That this is indeed a plausible scenario is illustrated by Cluster magnetic field and ion data from about 19 RE near local midnight in the equatorial plane.
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