This paper discusses important new findings obtained from global kinetic simulations of magnetotail plasma. A region of strongly non-adiabatic ion acceleration (known as the ''wall'' region) exists in the near Earth tail and demarcates two very different regimes of ion motion: adiabatic and quasiadiabatic. A strong enhancement of the cross-tail current occurs on the tailward side of the wall. Our comparison of numerical and adiabatic pressure profiles indicates that non-adiabatic processes operating in this region may contribute significantly to a pressure balance relief in the course of quasisteady magnetospheric convection. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1992