T. G. Onsager,
NOAA Space Environment Center
Boulder, CO 80303

J. D. Scudder,
University of Iowa,
Department of Physics & Astronomy,
Iowa City, IA 52242-1479,

A. Korth,
Max Planck Institute,
Lindau, 3411, Germany

H. J. Singer,
NOAA Space Environment Center
Boulder, CO 80303

M. Lockwood,
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,
Chilton, Oxfordshire, UK

R. P. Lepping,
Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Observations from the Hydra electron and ion spectrometer and from the Electric Field Experiment on the POLAR spacecraft have been used to investigate the direct entry of magnetosheath plasma into the LLBL, the cusp, and the mantle. The entering magnetosheath plasma is observed to have large-scale variability, over time scales of tens of minutes to hours, and small-scale variability, over time scales of several minutes. The large-scale structure consists of multiple entries and exits from the dispersed cusp ions that are expected to result from variations in the dayside reconnection rate. These entries and exits correspond to variations in the southward component of the interplanetary magnetic field observed by the WIND MFI instrument that potentially are controlling the reconnection rate. Superimposed on the large-scale variability is a small-scale structure in the particle dispersion that similarly is consistent with variations in the reconnection rate. These observations will be discussed in terms of large-scale motion of the open-closed field line boundary and the possible mechanisms that can produce the large- and small-scale structure.