[1] Earth's high-latitude outflow of H + and O + ions has been examined with the Toroidal Imaging Mass-Angle Spectrograph instrument on the Polar satellite in the 15-eV to 33-keV energy range over an almost 3-year period near solar minimum (1996)(1997)(1998). This outflow is compared with solar wind plasma and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) data from the Wind spacecraft, the latter having been time shifted to the subsolar magnetopause and averaged for 15 min prior to each sampling of Earth's magnetic fieldaligned ion flow densities. When the flow data are arranged according to the polarity of the IMF B z (in GSM coordinates) and limited to times with B z > 3 nT or B z < À3 nT, the total rate of ion outflow is seen to be significantly enhanced with negative B z , typically by factors of 2.5-3 for the O + and 1.5-2 for the H + , more than previously reported from similar but less extensive comparisons. With either IMF B z polarity the rate of ion outflow is well correlated with the solar wind energy flow density, especially well with the density of kinetic energy flow. The rate of ion outflow within the instrument's energy range is a strong function of the Polar satellite altitude, increasing almost threefold from perigee (R $ 2 R E ) toward apogee (R $ 4-9 R E ) for O + ions, i.e., up to 10 26 ions s À1 or more per hemisphere. The apogee enhancement may be still larger for the H + , but it is obscured by mantle flow of cusp origin solar H + . Ion mean energy also increases with altitude, leading to about a twentyfold increase in the O + energy flow rate from Polar perigee to apogee altitude, reaching values of 20 GW or more per hemisphere. While the perigee outflow of H + has little or no seasonal modulation, in terms of ions s À1 the O + outflow rates at both altitudes do increase during local summer and so does the rate of cusp origin H + flow near apogee. The latter rate, in fact, has very similar seasonal modulation as the O + rates, suggesting that it has a significant influence on the O + outflow.

The dominant feature in Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) sky maps of heliospheric energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux is a ribbon of enhanced flux that extends over a broad range of ecliptic latitudes and longitudes. It is narrow (approximately 20 degrees average width) but long (extending over 300 degrees in the sky) and is observed at energies from 0.2 to 6 kilo-electron volts. We demonstrate that the flux in the ribbon is a factor of 2 to 3 times higher than that of the more diffuse, globally distributed heliospheric ENA flux. The ribbon is most pronounced at approximately 1 kilo-electron volt. The average width of the ribbon is nearly constant, independent of energy. The ribbon is likely the result of an enhancement in the combined solar wind and pickup ion populations in the heliosheath.

Abstract. We present observations of the magnitude and variability of escaping suprathermal ions in the energy per charge range of 15 eV/e to 33 keV/e. The data were obtained from the Toroidal Imaging Mass-Angle Spectrograph (TIMAS) on the Polar spacecraft from April 1996 to September 1998 over the Earth's southern Polar cap during solar minimum conditions. The net outflow rates of ionospheric ions derived from this data set are significantly different from those inferred from analysis of similar data obtained at higher altitudes from the Dynamics Explorer (DE) 1 satellite. The data present a clear picture of the seasonal variation of ion outflow as a function of solar illumination (i.e., season). We conclude that the differences between the present results and previous DE 1 estimates of the magnitude of escaping suprathermal ions can be explained by energization of the H + component of the Polar wind above the 6000-8000 km altitude region, where the Polar data were acquired. We also note that seasonal variations in He + outflow presented here are not as large as those reported previously.

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[1] We report on the characteristic energy, intensity, and flow rate of escaping ionospheric ions as a function of solar illumination. The data presented here were acquired with the Toroidal Ion Mass-Angle Spectrograph (TIMAS) instrument on the Polar satellite at altitudes of 6000 to 9000 km, during solar minimum. To obtain uniform coverage under various solar illumination conditions, data were restricted to geomagnetically quiet intervals when the Dst index was above À50 nT. We explicitly report data for four magnetic local time ranges. Our investigation confirms many of the characteristics of ion outflows deduced from earlier episodic studies and identifies an anticorrelation in the dependence of beam and conic fluxes on solar illumination, which we attribute to variations in the altitude at which auroral acceleration processes occur. We find that the cusp is an important but not dominant source of ionospheric plasma for the magnetosphere. We conclude that significantly different plasma energization and/or transport mechanisms are dominant in the cusp and the midnight sectors. In addition, we conclude that variations in the solar EUV and geomagnetic energy inputs into the ionosphere, rather than the longer timescale seasonal and annual variations in solar illumination, determine the global rates of H + and O + outflow. The data presented here provide comprehensive and realistic boundary conditions for large-scale magnetospheric models during nonstorm times.

Abstract. We present observations of a seasonal variation in the occurrence frequency of upflowing ions beams near 1 RE altitude in the 1800-2400 local time sector. These observations were obtained from the Toroidal Imaging MassAngle Spectrograph (TIMAS) instrument during POLAR satellite perigee passes from March 1996 to September 1997. We show that the observed variation is most simply interpreted as a variation in the magnitude of the auroral acceleration process responsible for creating upflowing ion beams and precipitating energetic electrons. These observations, the first to find a seasonal effect in the occurence of ion beams, also confirm previous reports which examined related phenomena and provide further evidence that changes in ionospheric conductivity have a measurable effect in the strength of the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere.

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Abstract. Centrifugal acceleration of escaping ionospheric plasma is one of the important and fundamental processes responsible for energizing and transporting ionospheric plasma to all regions of the magnetosphere. Normally this mechanism operates over extremely large distances. Because of this feature and limitations in particle instrumentation, it has not been possible to directly confirm from insitu plasma measurements the very specific predictions made by basic plasma theory about centrifugal acceleration. We report here data obtained near Polar satellite apogee over the northern polar cap during a magnetospheric compression event that occurred on September 24, 1998.