Preferential Acceleration of Coherent Magnetic Structures and Bursty Bulk Flows in Earth's Magnetotail

Abstract

Observations indicate that the magnetotail convection is turbulent and bi-modal, consisting of fast bursty bulk flows (BBF) and a nearly stagnant background. We demonstrate that this observed phenomenon may be understood in terms of the intermittent interactions, dynamic mergings and preferential accelerations of coherent magnetic structures under the influence of a background magnetic field geometry that is consistent with the development of an X-point mean-field structure.

12 pages, 5 Postscript figures, uses agums.sty