Ion acceleration in the Martian tail: Phobos observations

The measurements carried out on the spacecraft Phobos‐2 have revealed that the plasma sheet of the Martian magnetosphere consists mainly of ions of planetary origin, accelerated up to ∼ 1 keV/q. Such an acceleration may result from the action of magnetic shear stresses of the draped field, the ion energy increasing toward the center of the tail where magnetic stresses are stronger. The energy gained by heavy ions does not depend on their mass and are proportional to the ion charge. The mechanism of the ion acceleration is related with the generation of a charge separation electric field, which extracts ions from “ray” structures in the Martian tail.