The electron mixing and acceleration signatures as seen near the cusp and on the flank Original Research Article

The signatures of mixing and acceleration of different plasma components are usually invoked to characterize different regions near the magnetospheric cusp and/or the magnetopause and to discuss physical processes leading to penetrating and populating the magnetosphere by the solar wind plasma. The use of the detailed distribution function might put additional light on considerations and help to distinguish between different processes. We show some details of electron distributions for two selected Interball- Tail passages near the cusp. Regions of different anisotropy and acceleration/mixing signatures are identified and physical mechanisms possibly related to these observations are listed.