Two Types of Martian Magnetotail Current Sheets: MAVEN Observations of
Ion Composition
Abstract
The ion composition of the tail current sheet is essential to
understanding the Martian ion escape, however, our current knowledge is
poor. Using measurements by Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN
(MAVEN), we investigate the density of different ion species in the
Martian magnetotail current sheet. We find that events we survey of the
current sheet, the average occurrence rate of current sheets with
dominant heavy ions (O+ and O2+) is about 50%, while the rate of those
with dominant H+ is about 20%. A current sheet closer to the terminator
is mostly dominated by heavy ions, regardless of upstream solar wind,
but it could be dominated sometimes by H+ when it is beyond the
downstream distance of 0.75 RM (RM is Mars’ radius), where the
occurrence rate of current sheets with dominant H+ (heavy ions) weakly
increases (decreases) with solar wind density and dynamic pressure.