Bands of Ions and Angular V's: A Conjugate Manifestation of Ionospheric Ion Acceleration
Abstract
Data from the hot plasma instruments on the Dynamics Explorer 1 and 2 spacecraft have been used to study the injection, drift, and subsequent precipitation of suprathermal positive ions in the auroral zone. The observation at both high and low altitudes of electron inverted "V" events in the boundary plasma sheet (BPS) and of ion "bands" (energy decreasing with decreasing latitude) in the adjacent central plasma sheet (CPS) leads to the following ion injection model: upward-moving energetic ion beams are injected onto BPS magnetic field lines by the electrostatic potential drops associated with electron inverted V's. As the ion beams move toward the equator and into the conjugate hemisphere they are convected to lower latitudes and into the CPS. The energy-latitude dependence of the ion bands, coupled with concurrent ion convection measurements, indicate that the ion distributions are primarily O+, in agreement with their postulated ionospheric source.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Geophysical Research
- Pub Date:
- March 1984
- DOI:
- 10.1029/JA089iA03p01749
- Bibcode:
- 1984JGR....89.1749W
- Keywords:
-
- Auroral Zones;
- Energetic Particles;
- Ion Injection;
- Ion Temperature;
- Ionospheric Electron Density;
- Latitude;
- Dynamics Explorer 1 Satellite;
- Dynamics Explorer 2 Satellite;
- Energy Spectra;
- High Temperature Plasmas;
- Ion Beams;
- Low Altitude;
- Particle Precipitation;
- Positive Ions;
- Space Plasmas;
- Spectrograms