Mars Express observations of high altitude planetary ion beams and their relation to the "energetic plume" loss channel

This study presents observational evidence of high-energy (ions >2 keV) beams of planetary ions above Mars' induced magnetospheric boundary (IMB) and relates them with the energetic plume loss channel calculated from numerical models. A systematic search of the Mars Express (MEX) ion data using an orbit filtering criteria is described, using magnetometer data from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) to determine the solar wind motional electric field (Esw) direction. Two levels of statistical survey are presented, one focused on times when the MEX orbit was directly in line with the Esw and another for all angles between the MEX location and the Esw. For the first study, within the 3 year overlap of MGS and MEX, nine brief intervals were found with clear and unambiguous high-energy O+ observations consistent with the energetic plume loss channel. The second survey used a point-by-point determination of MEX relative to the E-field and contained many thousands of 192 s measurements. This study yielded only a weak indication for an Esw-aligned plume. Furthermore, the y-z components of the weighted average velocities in the bins of this y-z spatial domain survey do not systematically point in the Esw direction. The first survey implies the existence of this plume and shows that its characteristics are seemingly consistent with the expected energy and flight direction from numerical studies; the second study softens the finding and demonstrates that there are many planetary ions beyond the IMB moving in unexpected directions. Several possible explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.