Ionospheric plasma escape by high‐altitude electric fields: Magnetic moment "pumping"

Measurements of electric fields and the composition of upward flowing ionospheric ions by the Viking spacecraft have provided further insight into the mass dependent plasma escape process taking place in the upper ionosphere. The Viking results of the temperature and mass‐composition of individual ion beams suggest that upward flowing ion beams can be generated by a magnetic moment “pumping” mechanism caused by low‐frequency transverse electric field fluctuations, in addition to a field‐aligned “quasi‐electrostatic” acceleration process. Magnetic moment “pumping” within transverse electric field gradients can be described as a conversion of electric drift velocity to cyclotron velocity by the inertial drift in a time‐dependent electric field. This gives an equal cyclotron velocity gain for all plasma species, irrespective of mass. Oxygen ions thus gain 16 times as much transverse energy as protons. In addition to a transverse energy gain above the escape energy, a field‐aligned quasi‐electrostatic acceleration is considered primarily responsible for the collimated upward flow of ions. The field‐aligned acceleration adds a constant parallel energy to escaping ionospheric ions. Thus, ion beams at high altitudes can be explained by a bimodal acceleration from both a transverse (equal velocity) and a parallel (equal energy) acceleration process. The Viking observations also show that the thermal energy of ion beams, and the ion beam width are mass dependent. The average O + /H + “temperature” ratio has been found to be 4.0 from the Viking observations. This is less than the factor of 16 anticipated from a coherent transverse electric field acceleration but greater than the factor of 1 (or even less than 1) expected from a turbulent acceleration process.