The atomic O+ ion oxygen and molecular NO+ ion nitrogen temperatures and temperature anisotropy throughout a realistic auroral F region in the presence of large electric fields are studied. The O+ ion temperature is smaller than the NO+ ion temperature in the lower part of the F region, and this effect increases with the increasing of the neutral temperature as well as of the ion-neutral drift velocity. The ion temperature anisotropy is defined as the ratio of the ion perpendicular temperature to the ion parallel temperature with respect to the magnetic field. For the O+ ions this ratio is maximum around 290 km in altitude for a constant ion-neutral drift velocity throughout the F region. For similar conditions the NO+ ion temperature anisotropy is constant between 175 km and 250 km in altitude and decreases for higher altitudes. Application to mixed species non-Maxwellian radar spectra analysis is discussed. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1992