Day‐to‐day variability in equatorial spread F: Is there some physics missing?

Attempts continue to be made, without notable success, to identify the source of day‐to‐day variability in occurrence of equatorial spread F (ESF). Most seek to uncover a controlling factor in one of the parameters that describe the linear growth rate of the Rayleigh‐Taylor (RT) instability. It is possible, however, that some physics is still missing in that description of ESF generation. Consideration is given here to an F‐region response to a large‐scale polarization electric field that is generated by a sporadic‐E layer instability (Cosgrove and Tsunoda, 2002) and mapped to the bottomside of the F2 layer. Results indicate that the large‐scale wave structure, the most reliable precursor for ESF, may be initiated by this process at the base of the F2 layer, where plasma drift is westward.

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