Daily and seasonal variations in the linear growth rate of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the ionosphere obtained with GAIA

Abstract The linear growth rates of the Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability in the ionosphere from 2011 to 2013 were obtained with a whole atmosphere-ionosphere coupled model GAIA (ground-to-topside model of atmosphere and ionosphere for aeronomy). The effects of thermospheric dynamics driven by atmospheric waves propagating from below on the R-T growth rate are included in the model by incorporating meteorological reanalysis data in the region below 30 km altitude. The daily maximum R-T growth rates for these periods are compared with the observed occurrence days of the equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) determined by the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) in West Sumatra, Indonesia. We found that a high R-T growth rate tends to correspond to the actual EPB occurrence, suggesting the possibility of predicting EPB occurrences with numerical models.