Observations in the transverse ion energization region

Details Observations in the transverse ion energization region Observations in the transverse ion energization region

Apr 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991georl..18..725w&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 18, April 1991, p. 725-728.

Physics

27

Auroral Zones, Energetic Particles, Ion Temperature, Ionospheric Heating, Magnetic Field Configurations, Exos Satellites, Exos-D Satellite, Magnetospheric Ion Density, Mass Spectrometers

Scientific paper

This paper presents the first direct observations of thermal (E/Q between 0 and 25 V) and suprathermal (E/Q greater than 50 V) ion distributions from the Suprathermal Ion Mass Spectrometer (SMS) on the Exos-D spacecraft in and near the transverse ion energization (TIE) region. It is shown that the TIE region exists on field lines closely related to the auroral zone and at altitudes which vary between 3000 to 6000 km on the dayside. This process also occurs on the nightside at lower altitudes, but no clear examples when the spacecraft was in the TIE region at these local times have been found to date. The altitude range over which the energization occurs is narrow, less than 100 km. In the region, all ions (major and minor species) are energized to approximately the same energy (temperature) perpendicular to the magnetic field and ejected into the magnetosphere by the gradient magnetic field force. Above the region, the energized plasma expands outward along magnetic field lines forming 'conic' distributions. However, distribution function observations above the TIE region indicate that significant variations from that expected from conservation of the first invariant occur when the ions have traveled only a few thousand kilometers upward from the source.

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