Acceleration of Heavy Ions in the Martian Magnetosphere Tail by the Data of the TAUS and MAGMA Experiments on the Phobos-2 Spacecraft

The data obtained in the TAUS experiment carried out on board the Phobos-2 spacecraft showed that in a plasma sheet in the vicinity of Mars, the three-dimensional distribution functions of heavy ions of the planetary origin have the form of a "mushroom cap". To analyze the distribution of ions in the Martian magnetic tail both kinetic and magnetohydrodynamic approaches are used. A number of relationships between the properties of plasma and magnetic field in the magnetosphere tail and in the solar wind are considered. They bear witness to the following acceleration mechanisms taking part in the formation of the observed distribution of ions in the plasma sheet in the vicinity of Mars: acceleration due to the tension of magnetic field lines, acceleration in longitudinal and transverse electric fields of the tail, and acceleration through direct interaction of circumplanetary plasma with the plasma of a magnetosheath in polar regions of the magnetosphere.