Large‐scale structures in the equatorial ionosphere and their connection to the generalized Rayleigh‐Taylor instability

Abstract

For the first time, electric field and density fluctuations have been simultaneously measured on the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System satellite at large scales (>300 km). The ratio of their spectral power rises as k2, unlike scales from 20 m to 300 km where the ratio is independent of k. We suggest that gravity waves dominate these large scales and mix with density gradients via self‐generated electric fields to form δn/n0.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 01, 2013
Source ID
10.1002/jgra.50283

Entities

People

  • E. V. Dao
  • M. C. Kelley
  • P. A. Roddy
  • R. F. Pfaff

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Cornell University
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • Space