- Article
- Open Access
- Published:
On the possibility of identifying heavy ion acceleration processes in the magnetotail of Mars
Earth, Planets and Space volume 52, pages561–565(2000)
Abstract
The dependence of the energy of ions on their mass could be a useful tool for the identification of possible acceleration processes in the Martian plasma sheet. The study is based on a few cases when heavier ions and protons were registered simultaneously in the plasma sheet by the TAUS energy spectrometer, and on published data of the ASPERA instrument. The analysis of mass dependence of the ion energy in the plasma sheet suggests that frictional preacceleration of ions probably in the pole regions of the Martian magnetosphere can be responsible for not more than 40% of the energy gain of heavy ions in the plasma sheet, the cross-tail current sheet acceleration yields up to 70%, and from 30 to 70% of the heavy ion energy is provided by the acceleration due to magnetic field line stresses (and/or electric field aligned acceleration).
References
Barabash, S. and O. Norberg, Indirect detection of the Martian helium corona, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 1547–1550, 1994.
Barabash, S., E. Kallio, R. Lundin, and H. Koskinen, Measurements of the nonthermal helium escape from Mars, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 21307–21316, 1995.
Dubinin, E., R. Lundin, O. Norberg, and N. Pissarenko, Ion acceleration in the Martian tail: Phobos observations, J. Geoghys. Res., 98, 3991–3997, 1993.
Eastman, T. E., R. J. DeCoster, and L. A. Frank, Velocity distributions of ion beams in the plasma sheet boundary layer, in Ion Acceleration in the Magnetosphere and Ionosphere, Geophysical Monograph 38, AGU, Washington D.C., pp. 117–126, 1986.
Haerendel, G., Tail exploration and tail formation with artificial plasma clouds, in Magnetotail Physics, edited by A. T. Y. Lui, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md., p. 337, 1987.
Ip, W.-H., Ion acceleration at the current sheet of the Martian magnetosphere, Geophys. Res. Lett., 19, 2095–2098, 1992.
Kotova, G. A., M. I. Verigin, N. M. Shutte, A. P. Remizov, H. Rosenbauer, W. Riedler, K. Schwingnschuh, M. Delva, K. Szegö, and M. Tatrallyay, Planetary heavy ions in the magnetotail of Mars: Results of the TAUS and MAGMA experiments aboard Phobos, Adv. Space Res., 20, 173–176, 1997.
Kotova, G. A., M. I. Verigin, A. P. Remizov, N. M. Shutte, H. Rosenbauer, S. Livi, W. Riedler, K. Schwingenchuh, M. Tatrallyay, K. Szegö, I. Apáthy, Heavy ions in the magnetosphere of Mars: Phobos 2/TAUS observations, Phys. & Chem. of the Earth (C), 25, 157–160, 2000.
Lichtenegger, H. and E. Dubinin, Model calculations of the planetary ion distribution in the Martian tail, Earth Planets Space, 50, 445–452, 1998.
Lundin, R., A. Zakharov, R. Pellinen, H. Borg, B. Hultqvist, N. Pissarenko, E. M. Dubinin, S. W. Barabash, I. Liede, and H. Koskinen, First measurements of the ionospheric plasma escape from Mars, Nature, 341, 609–612, 1989.
Norberg, O., S. Barabash, and R. Lundin, Observations of molecular ions in the Martian plasma environment, in Plasma Environments of Nonmagnetic Planets, COSPAR Colloquia Series, vol. 4, edited by T. Gombosi, p. 299, 1993.
Rosenbauer, H., N. Shutte, I. Apáthy, A. Galeev, K. Gringauz, H. Grünwaldt, P. Hemmerich, K. Jockers, P. Király, G. Kotova, S. Livi, E. Marsch, A. Richter, W. Riedler, A. Remizov, R. Schwenn, K. Schwingenschuh, M. Steller, K. Szegö, M. Verigin, and M. Witte, Ions of Martian origin and plasma sheet in the Martian magnetosphere: initial results of the TAUS experiment, Nature, 341, 612–616, 1989.
Shabanskiy, V. P., Phenomena in the Near Terrestrial Space, pp. 167–190, Nauka, Moscow, 1972 (in Russian).
Speiser, T. W., Particle trajectories in model current sheets, 1. Analitical solutions, J. Geophys. Res., 70, 4219–4226, 1965.
Verigin, M. I., N. Shutte, A. Galeev, K. Gringauz, G. Kotova, A. Remizov, H. Rosenbauer, P. Hemmerich, S. Livi, I. Apáthy, K. Szegö, W. Riedler, K. Schwingenschuh, M. Steller, and Ye. G. Yeroshenko, Ions of planetary origin in the Martian magnetosphere (Phobos 2/TAUS experiment), Planet. Space Sci., 39, 131–137, 1991.
Verigin, M., G. Kotova, N. Shutte, K. Szegö, M. Tatrallyay, I. Apathy, H. Rosenbauer, S. Livi, A. K. Richter, K. Schwingenschuh, T.-L. Zhang, J. Slavin, and J. Lemaire, Quantitative model of the Martian magnetopause shape and its variation with the solar wind ram pressure based on Phobos 2 observations, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 2147–2155, 1997.
Author information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kotova, G.A., Verigin, M.I., Remizov, A.P. et al. On the possibility of identifying heavy ion acceleration processes in the magnetotail of Mars. Earth Planet Sp 52, 561–565 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351663
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
Keywords
- Current Sheet
- Plasma Sheet
- Acceleration Process
- Relative Input
- Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer
