Dawn-Dusk Ion Flow Asymmetry in the Plasma Sheet: Interplanetary Magnetic Field B-y Versus Distance With Respect to the Neutral Sheet

Previous studies have shown that the average dawn-dusk component of the perpendicular plasma flow in the plasma sheet (V-perpendicular to) can vary depending on the distance relative to the neutral sheet and the dawn-dusk component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF B-y). In this study, we combined 33 years of data from the Geotail, Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, Cluster, and magnetospheric multiscale missions to study the slow (<200 km/s) ion flows perpendicular to the magnetic field. We find that IMF B-y has a hemispheric dependent influence on both the tail B-y and tail V-perpendicular to. Particularly, the influence is more prominent in the midnight sector (compared to both the pre- and post-midnight sectors) and at distances far from the neutral sheet (compared to the distances close to the neutral sheet). However, at distances close to the neutral sheet, there is an increased dominance of duskward flows which dominates over the systematic influence of IMF B-y on tail V-perpendicular to. Our results indicate that IMF B-y has a major influence on the magnetic flux transport in the magnetotail, mainly at distances far from the neutral sheet. The influence is weaker at distances close to the neutral sheet.