** Progress in Earth and Planetary Science is the official journal of the Japan Geoscience Union, published in collaboration with its 51 society members.
** Progress in Earth and Planetary Science is partly financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results to enhance dissemination of information of scientific research.
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Space and planetary sciences
Review of the generation mechanisms of post-midnight irregularities in the equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere
Otsuka Y
Equatorial ionosphere, Ionospheric irregularity, Rayleigh–Taylor instability, Plasma bubble
Range-time-intensity plot of the field-aligned irregularity (FAI) echo in the F region observed on the five beams of a VHF radar in Indonesia on the nights of August 21, 2007. (after Otsuka et al. 2009)
This paper provides a brief review of ionospheric irregularities that occur in magnetically equatorial and low-latitude regions post-midnight during low solar activity periods. Ionospheric irregularities can occur in equatorial plasma bubbles. Plasma bubbles are well-known to frequently occur post-sunset when the solar terminator is nearly parallel to the geomagnetic field lines (during equinoxes at the longitude where the declination of the geomagnetic field is almost equal to zero and near the December solstice at the longitude where the declination is tilted westward), especially during high solar activity conditions via the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. However, recent observations during a solar minimum period show a high occurrence rate of irregularities post-midnight around the June solstice. The mechanisms for generating the post-midnight irregularities are still unknown, but two candidates have been proposed. One candidate is the seeding of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability by atmospheric gravity waves propagating from below into the ionosphere. The other candidate is the uplift of the F layer by the meridional neutral winds in the thermosphere, which may be associated with midnight temperature maximums in the thermosphere.
