Properties of adiabatic potential transitions in the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere

The properties of adiabatic potential transitions in a current carrying plasma are investigated and classified. It is shown that it is important to include pressure effects since the character of the transition (e.g. whether or not it behaves as a particle accelerator) is determined by whether the speed of a streaming species on entering the transition is less or greater than the "sound speed" of that species. If electrons are the main current carriers in the field aligned current systems associated with the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere we find that, under typical conditions, their drift speed is less than their thermal speed with the implication that if they enter a potential transition their pressure gradient will overcome the electrostatic field so that they are decelerated and heated by the transition. Under disturbed conditions when the field aligned current densities are exceptionally high, potential transitions act as particle accelerators.