The reason for magnetospheric substorms and solar flares

It has been proposed that magnetospheric substorms and solar flares are a result of the same mechanism. It is suggested that this mechanism is connected with the escape, or attempted escape, of energized plasma from a region of closed magnetic field lines bounded by a magnetic bottle. In the case of the earth, it must be plasma that is able to maintain a discrete auroral arc, and it is proposed that the cross-tail current connected to the arc is filamentary in nature to provide the field-aligned current sheet above the arc.