On the possibility of identifying heavy ion acceleration processes in the magnetotail of Mars

The dependence of the energy of ions on their mass could be a useful tool f or the identification of possible acceleration processes in the Martian pla sma sheet. The study is based on a few cases when heavier ions and protons were registered simultaneously in the plasma sheet by the TAUS energy spect rometer, and on published data of the ASPERA instrument. The analysis of ma ss dependence of the ion energy in the plasma sheet suggests that frictiona l preacceleration of ions probably in the pole regions of the Martian magne tosphere can be responsible for not more than 40% of the energy gain of hea vy ions in the plasma sheet, the cross-tail current sheet acceleration yiel ds up to 70%, and from 30 to 70% of the heavy ion energy is provided by the acceleration due to magnetic field line stresses (and/or electric field al igned acceleration).