Further determination of the characteristics of magnetospheric plasma vortices with Isee 1 and 2

Abstract

Further studies of the vortices in magnetospheric plasma flow with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory/Max‐Planck‐Institut (LASL/MPI) fast plasma experiment on Isee 1 and 2 have revealed that the pattern of vortical flow has a wavelength of ∼20–40 RE and moves tailward through the magnetosphere at speeds of several hundred kilometers per second. The tendency toward vorticity pervades the total breadth of the plasma sheet tailward of the dawn‐dusk meridian. The sense of rotation of the plasma flow (as viewed from above the ecliptic plane) is clockwise in the morningside of the plasma sheet and counterclockwise in the eveningside. The sense of rotation in the morning and evening boundary layers is reversed from that in the contiguous regions of the plasma sheet. The occurrence of vortical flow is independent of the level of geomagnetic activity but is associated with long‐period geomagnetic pulsations. We believe that the source of the vortical motion is a Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability of the plasma boundary layer's inner surface (i.e., the interface between the plasma sheet and the boundary layer) that has recently been proposed by Sonnerup (1980).