Abstract
As it was recently predicted, the kinetic ballooning/interchange
instability (BICI) can provoke reconnection onsets that lead to detached
azimuthally thin earthward intrusions (heads) of depleted plasma tubes
when 𝛽eq ⩽ 100. Such detached BICI heads would be seen as localized
earthward-propagating dipolarization fronts. Using Time History of
Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms observations in the
plasma sheet at XGSM ≈ −11 Re and conjugate All-Sky Imager and
magnetometer networks observations on the ground, we show four examples
when prominent dipolarization fronts with moderate earthward flows were
observed amidst azimuthally drifting interchange heads and concurrently
with the ionospheric current intensifications near Time History of
Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms footprints and
auroral bright spots originating from dimmer azimuthal beads/rays. These
events support the idea that some of the BICI heads detach from the
region with reversed radial gradient of Bz. The detached BICI heads
propagate earthward-driving ionospheric pseudo-breakups.