Equatorial spread- F: a review of recent experimental results

Abstract

A number of striking experimental verifications of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, as applied to equatorial spread- F, have been made in the past few years. We review these observations and attempt to synthesize them with parallel theoretical developments. The results also pose some new questions concerning the turbulent cascade of energy and the evolution of an inner scale for the phenomenon. We review recent observations of bottomside altitude modulation and discuss the possible role of gravity waves in initiating the equatorial spread- F process.