COLD ION-BEAMS IN THE LOW LATITUDE BOUNDARY-LAYER DURING ACCELERATED FLOW EVENTS

Measurements made with the Fast Plasma Experiment on ISEE 1 and 2 reveal that accelerated beams of cold (1–30 eV for H+) ions are present sporadically on reconnected field lines within the low latitude boundary layer, LLBL. H+ normally is the major constituent of these beams, but He+ and O+ are also occasionally detected in variable concentrations. Because of the low temperatures and the compositional makeup of these beams, the ionosphere must ultimately be the source of these ions. Observed beam speeds (between 120 and 250 km s−1) are always less than that of the magnetosheath ions which penetrate into the LLBL on reconnected field lines, but both ion populations share the same E×B convective drift. Analysis reveals that reflection at the magnetopause cannot be the mechanism accelerating these ions. A more likely possibility is that the ions are accelerated primarily by the large transverse drift of recently reconnected field lines. Copyright 1990 by the American Geophysical Union.