Generation of a severe convective ionospheric storm under stable Rayleigh-Taylor conditions: triggering by meteors?

• Autores: Kelley, M. C., Ilma, R. R.
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2016
• Institución: Instituto Geofísico del Perú
• Repositorio: IGP-Institucional
• Lenguaje: inglés
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.igp.gob.pe:20.500.12816/2071
• Enlace del recurso: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12816/2071; https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-34-165-2016
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Ionosphere; Equatorial ionosphere; Ionospheric irregularities; Ionospheric physics; http://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.05.01

Here we report on four events detected using the Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) over an 18-year period, in which huge convective ionospheric storms (CISs) occur in a stable ionosphere. We argue that these rare events could be initiated by meteor-induced electric fields. The meteor-induced electric fields map to the bottomside of the F region, causing radar echoes and a localized CIS. If and when a localized disturbance reaches 500 km, we argue that it becomes two-dimensionally turbulent and cascades structure to both large and small scales. This leads to long-lasting structure and, almost certainly, to scintillations over a huge range of latitudes some ±15° wide and to 3 m irregularities, which backscatter the VHF radar waves. These structures located at high altitudes are supported by vortices shed by the upwelling bubble in a vortex street.