Mid-latitude ionospheric fluctuation spectra due to secondary E x B instabilities

Abstract

The most spectacular night of mid-latitude spread F ever recorded at Arecibo is analyzed and compared with barium cloud observations made in the 1970s and with equatorial spread F. Strong evidence is found for a secondary instability driven either by a poleward electric field and a westward density gradient (both presumably due to a primary Perkins instability), or by a zero-order eastward wind flowing across the westward gradient. Spectra computed from the incoherent scatter density profiles of this event are very similar to the spectra of both barium striations and equatorial spread F. Estimates of the strength of the radar wave scattering expected from the fluctuation spectra are in good agreement with the VHF observations from that night. Finally, a poleward-surging, mid-latitude plasma bubble is seen to bifurcate in a manner similar to equatorial spread-F simulations.