High‐speed flows in the inner central plasma sheet (first reported by Baumjohann et al. (1990)) are studied, together with the concurrent behavior of the plasma and magnetic field, by using AMPTE/IRM data from ≈ 9 to 19 R_E in the Earth's magnetotail. The conclusions drawn from the detailed analysis of a representative event are reinforced by a superposed epoch analysis applied on 2 years of data. The high‐speed flows organize themselves in 10‐min time scale flow enhancements which we call bursty bulk flow (BBF) events. Both temporal and spatial effects are responsible for their bursty nature. The flow velocity exhibits peaks of very large amplitude with a characteristic time scale of the order of a minute, which are usually associated with magnetic field dipolarizations and ion temperature increases. The BBFs represent intervals of enhanced earthward convection and energy transport per unit area in the y‐z GSM direction of the order of 5×10¹⁹ ergs/R_E².

The near‐Earth neutral line (NENL) model of magnetospheric substorms is reviewed. The observed phenomenology of substorms is discussed including the role of coupling with the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, the growth phase sequence, the expansion phase (and onset), and the recovery phase. New observations and modeling results are put into the context of the prior model framework. Significant issues and concerns about the shortcomings of the NENL model are addressed. Such issues as ionosphere‐tail coupling, large‐scale mapping, onset triggering, and observational timing are discussed. It is concluded that the NENL model is evolving and being improved so as to include new observations and theoretical insights. More work is clearly required in order to incorporate fully the complete set of ionospheric, near‐tail, midtail, and deep tail features of substorms. Nonetheless, the NENL model still seems to provide the best available framework for ordering the complex, global manifestations of substorms.

Probing magnetic reconnection in space: Magnetic reconnection occurs when the magnetic field permeating a conductive plasma rapidly rearranges itself, releasing energy and accelerating particles. Reconnection is important in a wide variety of physical systems, but the details of how it occurs are poorly understood. Burch et al. used NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission to probe the plasma properties within a reconnection event in Earth's magnetosphere (see the Perspective by Coates). They find that the process is driven by the electron-scale dynamics. The results will aid our understanding of magnetized plasmas, including those in fusion reactors, the solar atmosphere, solar wind, and the magnetospheres of Earth and other planets. Science , this issue p. 10.1126/science.aaf2939 ; see also p. 1176

Using a common methodology to analyze data from the AMPTE/IRM and ISEE 2 satellites we report on the statistical properties of bursty bulk flow events (BBFs) in the inner plasma sheet (IPS). A positive correlation between BBFs and the AE index suggests that BBFs are predominantly geomagnetically active time phenomena. Earthward BBFs are more frequent close to midnight and away from Earth, up to a distance of ∼19 R_E. Tailward BBFs are very infrequent in the IRM data set and somewhat less infrequent in the ISEE 2 data set in the region of the satellites' spatial overlap, possibly due to the more active conditions prevailing during the ISEE 2 mission in that region. However, in both data sets the ratio of tailward to earthward BBFs increases with distance from Earth; more than 20% of all BBFs are anti‐sunward tailward of X = −19 R_E in the ISEE 2 data set. BBFs are responsible for 60‐100% of the measured earthward transport of mass, energy and magnetic flux past the satellite in the regions of maximum occurrence rate, even though they last approximately 10‐15% of the IPS observation time there. Thus BBFs represent the primary transport mechanism at those regions. The one‐to‐one correspondence between BBFs and substorm phase, as well as the relative contribution of BBFs to the total transport observed during substorms are questions that await further investigation based on multi instrument studies of individual events.