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On seeding equatorial spread F : Circular gravity waves
Author(s) -
Tsunoda Roland T.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2010gl043422
Subject(s) - physics , plasma , dynamo , polarization (electrochemistry) , wavelength , perturbation (astronomy) , gravity wave , ionosphere , monochromatic color , geophysics , gravitational wave , magnetic field , computational physics , atmospheric sciences , astrophysics , optics , astronomy , chemistry , quantum mechanics
A direct link appears to exist between gravity wave (GW) activity in the troposphere and plasma structure in the nighttime equatorial F layer during the solstices. This finding strongly favors a role being played by a neutral‐ion coupling process, which involves (1) a spatially‐varying dynamo current, generated in situ by a GW, and (2) perturbation transfer to the plasma by a polarization electric field. We show, for the first time, how two more of the puzzling features in observed plasma structure, referred to as equatorial spread F (ESF), can finally be explained, if we allow GWs to have circular, instead of plane, phase fronts. These features include (1) early appearance of large‐scale wave structure (LSWS) when the F layer is low, and (2) common appearances of a monochromatic LSWS with a long zonal wavelength.