Structure of the low‐latitude boundary layer

Observations at high temporal resolution of the frontside magnetopause and plasma boundary layer, made with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory/Max‐Planck‐Institut, Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, fast plasma analyzer on board the Isee 1 and 2 spacecraft, have revealed a complex quasi‐periodic structure of some of the observed boundary layers: cool tailward streaming boundary layer plasma is seen intermittently, with intervening periods of hot tenuous plasma which has properties similar to the magnetospheric population. While individual encounters with the boundary layer plasma last only a few minutes, the total observation time may extend over 1 hour or more. One such crossing, at 0800 hours local time and 40° northern GSM latitude, is examined in detail, including a quantitative comparison of the boundary layer entry and exit times of the two spacecraft. The data are found to be compatible with a boundary layer that is always attached to the manetopause but where the layer thickness has a large‐scale spatial modulation pattern which travels tailward past the spacecraft. Included are periods when the thickness is essentially zero and others when it is of the order of 1 R E . The duration of these periods is highly variable but is typically in the range of 2–5 min, corresponding to a distance along the magnetopause of the order of 3–8 R E . The observed boundary layer features include a steep density gradient at the magnetopause, with an approximately constant boundary layer plasma density amounting to about 25% of the magnetosheath density, and a second abrupt density decrease at the inner edge of the layer. It also appears that the purely magnetospheric plasma is occasionally separated from the boundary layer by a halo region in which the plasma density is somewhat higher, and the temperature somewhat lower, than in the magnetosphere. A tentative model is proposed in which the variable boundary layer thickness is produced by the Kelvin‐Helmholtz instability of the inner edge of the layer and in which eddy motion provides effective mixing within the layer.