Trapping of ion conics by downward parallel electric fields. Technical report

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:5117123

Gorney, D J; Chiu, Y T; Croley, D R

Several examples of upflowing field-aligned electrons at altitudes between 1000 and 1500 km at high latitudes have been reported recently. The velocity-space distributions of these electrons suggest that they were accelerated out of the ionosphere by downward parallel electric fields, and parallel potential drops of a few tens to a few hundred volts over the altitude range 1000-6000 km are implied. The electron beams are associated with ion conics. Data from electrostatic analyzers onboard the S3-3 satellite show that ion conics can be trapped at low altitude by the downward electric field. Evidence for the parallel electric field is obtained not only from observations of upflowing electron beams but also from observations of retardation of downflowing electrons and local acceleration of downflowing ions. The inferred parallel electric fields have magnitudes large enough to locally balance the magnetic mirror force on perpendicular ion conics in the few hundred eV energy range. This electrostatic trapping has important consequences for wave heating of ion conics since it extends the residence time of ions in the heating region. It is demonstrated that this multi-pass heating mechanism leads to perpendicular ion heating far in excess of that predicted by present theories of ion conic heating.

• Research Organization: Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5117123
• Report Number(s): AD-A-155306/4/XAB; TR-0084A(5940-05)-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
BEAM ANALYZERS
BEAMS
CHARGED PARTICLES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRONS
ELECTROSTATIC ANALYZERS
ELECTROSTATICS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HEATING
IONOSPHERE
IONS
LEPTON BEAMS
LEPTONS
MAGNETIC MIRRORS
OPEN PLASMA DEVICES
PARTICLE BEAMS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES