Sporadic E: current views and recent progress

Details Sporadic E: current views and recent progress Sporadic E: current views and recent progress

Mar 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998jastp..60..413m&link_type=abstract

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 60, Issue 4, p. 413-435.

Physics

104

Scientific paper

Sporadic E (Es) and related processes are reviewed as functions of viewing system, latitude and altitude. We find that the ``windshear theory''-perhaps with a small added external electric field-appears sufficient along with the tidal wind system to explain the mid-latitude layers which we refer to as tidal ion layers (TILs)-layers that have often been identified as sporadic E or as sequential sporadic E. Additionally, it has become clear that the high-latitude, altitude-narrow layers, also often identified as sporadic E, are consistently explained as being formed in appropriate large-scale convective electric field structures with the wind system playing a lesser role. Finally, we find that ``true'' sporadic E-an altitude-thin E region layer at an unpredictable altitude and/or an unexpected intensity-is found in a rich context of related phenomena that includes the tidal ion layers, electric-field-induced layers, HF/VHF radar quasi-periodic echoing (QPE) regions, and an apparently newly observed phenomenon descriptively termed ``ion rain.'' We conclude that the QPEs and ``ion rain'' indicate small horizontal scales and find considerable other evidence of order 10-100 km scale horizontal-structuring of layers which at least hints at an E/F region coupled-electrodynamic process, or processes. These processes apparently include instability-generated 10-100 km horizontal-scale E-fields that-we hypothesize-generate true sporadic E and the related complex layer structures (CLS) via horizontal redistribution of ions.

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