The Relationship of Ion Beams and Fast Flows in the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer

We report new findings on the behavior of plasmas in the vicinity of the plasma sheet boundary layer (PSBL). A large geometrical factor detector on WIND (3D plasma experiment) has discovered a unidirectional ion beam streaming in the tailward direction missed by previous observations. This tailward beam is as intense as the earthward streaming beam and it is found just inside the outer edge of the PSBL where earthward streaming beams are observed. The region where this tailward beam is observed includes an isotropic plasma component which is absent in the outer edge where earthward streaming beams are found. When these different distributions are convolved to calculate the velocity moments, fast flows (greater than 400 km/s) result in the earthward direction and much slower flows (less than 200 km/s) in the tailward direction. These new findings are substantially different from previous observations. Thus, the interpretation of fast flows and earthward and counterstreaming ion beams in terms of a neutral line model must be reexamined.