On the effect of thermospheric neutral winds on post-midnight field-aligned irregularities at low latitudes

We investigated a post-midnight Field-Aligned Irregularities (FAIs) event observed with the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) at Kototabang (0.2°S, 100.3°E, dip lat. 10.4
^o
S) in Indonesia on the night of 9 July 2010, using a comprehensive dataset of both neutral and plasma parameters. We compared FAI echoes collocated with 630 nm airglow depletion detected by an all-sky imager. The thermospheric neutral winds and temperatures obtained by a Fabry-Perot interferometer at Kototabang and the altitudes of F-layer (h'F) observed with ionosondes at Kototabang, Chiang Mai, and Chumphon were also examined. We found that the 3-m scale post-midnight FAIs occurred within plasma bubbles. The convergence of the equatorward neutral winds happened in this particular event related to midnight temperature maximum (MTM) and that the equatorward winds in both northern and southern hemispheres could be responsible for the growth of plasma bubbles around midnight. The uplift of F-layer at low latitudes could increase the growth rate of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Eastward electric currents driven by the equatorward winds could also contribute to the generation of the irregularities at post-midnight.