Solar effect on the Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth rate as simulated by the NCAR TIEGCM

Abstract

The TIEGCM (Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model) is used to investigate the solar effect on the equatorial ionospheric Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability growth rate, which is responsible for the occurrence of the plasma bubbles. The R-T growth rate is calculated for the solar maximum year 2003 and minimum 2009. The growth rate is strongly dependent on the solar activity. During solar maximum, the pre-reversal enhancement is much stronger leading to higher R-T growth rate. The R-T growth rates from the TIEGCM follow the same solar dependence as the observed occurrence of equatorial plasma bubbles by DMSP satellites. The R-T growth rate also enhances when the day/night terminator is parallel to the magnetic field line near the equator. The R-T growth rate does not correlate well with the solar F10.7 index on a short time scale (~10 days) because the field-line integrated electron content gradient cancels out the positive correlation between the vertical ion drift with the F10.7 index. The TIEGCM result shows the importance of the electron content gradient to the R-T growth rate and the plasma bubble occurrence. The bubble occurrence rates were estimated based on the vertical ion drift simulation results.