Transients at the dusk side magnetospheric boundary: Surface waves or isolated plasma blobs?

We revisit Interball-Tail and Magion-4 observations of the dusk side magnetospheric boundary on February 15-16, 1996. The observed transient behavior of the boundary can be interpreted in terms of surface waves or as the manifestation of isolated magnetosheath plasma entities embedded in the magnetosphere. We examine the arguments for each of these interpretations with high time resolution magnetic field and plasma data and by exploiting the dual-satellite nature of the observations. We find strong evidence for magnetic field and flow vortices near the magnetospheric boundary and hence for the existence of flux tubes with helicoidal field lines; such structures can be associated with both interpretations. The cross-correlation between the dual satellite observations and the apparent periodicity strongly suggest a Kelvin-Helmholtz surface wave, although other interpretations are not impossible. In any case, the observations for this particular event allow us to derive constraints on surface wave generation mechanisms and on scenarios that could account for the presence of isolated plasma elements in the magnetosphere.