Nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor instability in partially ionized plasma and the equatorial spread - F

The nonlinear evolution of the collisional gravitation induced Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability in the equatorial F region is investigated taking into account the finite Larmor radius (FLR) effects and the complete ion inertial term in ion equation of motion. A special class of coherent weakly nonlinear modes as solutions to the wave equation describing R-T instability driven modes is obtained. The leading nonlinear effects in the wave equation are found to appear through Vsub(L), the ion diamagnetic drift which essentially gives the FLR corrections. It is shown that the R-T modes in the equatorial F region can evolve into coherent, nonlinear, almost sinusoidal, stationary wave structures. These structures are found to travel with a constant phase velocity and to have slightly distorted sinusoidal shapes. These results seem to have a good agreement with many of the recent rocket and satellite observations of the equatorial spread F irregularities. (author)