Faster particles travel from the poles, while slower particles move about the equator.
The Sun's rotation mixes these currents. Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft observations and theoretical studies suggest that past Jupiter the currents form a vortex street in which magnetic field lines are trapped in particle whirlpools. A model computed on GSFC's CRAY C90 provides insight into these structures. The prominenet purple tubes are areas of low particle density. Inside are the thin orange lines of vortex regions, spiraling and coiling as motion becomes tangled and particles collide.