In the course of 2 days in October 1978, ISEE 3 encountered 14 magneti
c field reversals, five pronounced and several lesser high-beta region
s called ''plasma sheets,'' two distinct entropy regimes, two heat flu
x dropouts (HFDs), and planar magnetic structure led by a shock wave.
The complexity of the interval afforded an excellent opportunity to de
termine the relationships between these streamer belt structures, thei
r geometry and topology, and the resulting implications for the struct
ure of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS). None of the results of th
ree tests applied to the data support a wavy or folded HCS hypothesis.
In particular, a test for true magnetic polarity using primarily heat
flux data indicated that the field reversals occurred in a predominan
tly toward sector with three pockets of true away polarity and three o
f false away polarity. The results are consistent with a view in which
current sheets bound intertwined flux ropes, some of which coil back
on themselves, possibly as remnants of transient coronal activity. A c
omparison between joint occurrences of the various structures showed t
hat the most intense plasma sheets in the interval coincided with true
polarity reversals, that nearly every reversal, whether true or false
, corresponded to at least a weak plasma sheet, and that plasma sheets
occurred within HFD intervals. The plasma sheet/HFD relationship was
statistically confirmed in a search for plasma sheets in published HFD
s.