Auroral zone ion composition

Abstract

Some recent observations of auroral ion composition that are relevant to magnetospheric and ionospheric models are discussed. The auroral zone and its role as the region of exchange of warm and hot plasmas between the magetosphere and ionosphere are described, and the ion masss, energy, and angle distributions observed on a typical midaltitude auroral zone crossing are presented and discussed. The central role of oxygen ions as a tracer of the processses involved in coupling of ionospheric and magnetospheric plasmas is addressed. Some recent observations using very high resolution ion mass spectrometer data that have improved understanding of magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions are reviewed.