Investigation of the structure and dynamics of the plasma sheet: The CORALL experiment of the INTERBALL project

A statistical analysis of the INTERBALL/Tail Probe observations of the plas ma sheet in the Earth's magnetosphere during 1995-1998 allowed a series of results to be obtained, which describe the physical processes occurring dur ing magnetically quiet time on different spatio-temporal scales: (1) the as ymmetry of a global plasma-sheet position as a function of the B-y componen t of the interplanetary magnetic field and the velocity field in the plasma sheet; (2) the localization of the medium-scale bursty bulk flows (BBF); ( 3) certain estimates of the plasma turbulence parameters: and (4) distincti ons between the fast fluctuations of the V-y and V-z components of ion velo city. A comparison of the results with those of the previous ISEE-2, AMPTE/ IRM, and GEOTAIL observations allows certain objectives to be planned for s tudying the plasma sheet within the INTERBALL project.