The role of magnetic field fluctuations in nonadiabatic acceleration of ions during dipolarization

Abstract

We statistically examine changes in the composition of two different ion species, proton and oxygen ions, in the near‐Earth plasma sheet (X = −16 RE ∼ −6 RE) during substorm‐associated dipolarization. We use 10 years of energetic (9–212 keV/e) ion data obtained by the suprathermal ion composition spectrometer (STICS) sensor of the energetic particles and ion composition (EPIC) instrument on board the Geotail spacecraft. The results are as follows: (1) Although the percentage increase in the energy density of O+ ions before and after a dipolarization exceeds that of H+ ions in the low‐energy range (9–36 keV/e), this property is not evident in the high‐energy range (56–212 keV/e); (2) the energy spectrum of H+ and that of O+ become harder after dipolarization in almost all events; and (3) in some events the energy spectrum of O+ becomes harder than that of H+ as reported by previous studies, and, importantly, in other events, the spectrum of H+ becomes harder than that of O+. In order to investigate what mechanism causes these observational results, we focus on magnetic field fluctuations during dipolarization. It is found that the increase of the spectrum slope is positively correlated with the power of waves whose frequencies are close to the gyrofrequency of H+ or O+, respectively (the correlation coefficient is 0.48 for H+ and 0.68 for O+). In conclusion, ions are nonadiabatically accelerated by the electric field induced by the magnetic field fluctuations whose frequencies are close to their gyrofrequencies.