Cold ion streams consisting of double proton populations and singly charged oxygen observed at the distant magnetopause by Geotail: A case study

Details Cold ion streams consisting of double proton populations and singly charged oxygen observed at the distant magnetopause by Geotail: A case study Cold ion streams consisting of double proton populations and singly charged oxygen observed at the distant magnetopause by Geotail: A case study

Feb 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997jgr...102.2359h&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 102, Issue A2, p. 2359-2372

Physics

Plasma Physics

5

Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetotail Boundary Layers, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, Space Plasma Physics: Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration, Space Plasma Physics: Magnetic Reconnection

Scientific paper

The Geotail plasma and magnetic field observations reveal that multiple ion streams with different energies coexist at the magnetopause separating the magnetosheath and the lobe/mantle in the distant magnetotail at (-187,-23,-2) RE in the GSM coordinates. The ion streams sometimes consist of three components flowing tailward. On the basis of E×B drift analysis, we have identified that two of the three streams are protons, while the residual one of the highest energy (>7keV/q) consists of O+. The direction of the perpendicular velocities of these ion components is toward the magnetosheath from the lobe/mantle. The higher-energy (~2keV/q) proton component is detected only at the magnetopause, while the other two components (the lower-energy (<1keV/q) protons and O+) can also be observed in the lobe/mantle. In the lobe/mantle, the bulk velocity of the O+ flow is always nearly equal to that of the lower-energy proton stream. In the magnetosheath, the two proton streams completely merge with each other, and the O+ component cannot be recognized clearly. In the magnetopause current layer, the lower-energy proton component is significantly accelerated in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field due to electric field enhancement, whereas the parallel speeds of the higher-energy protons change according to the energization rate in the current layer. The temperature of the higher-energy proton stream is generally 50-100 eV, approximately twice as large as that of the lower-energy proton stream in the lobe/mantle and slightly higher than that of protons in the magnetosheath. These signatures of multiple ion streams are discussed in terms of magnetic field reconnection at the lobe/mantle magnetopause.

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