Unstable density distribution associated with equatorial plasma bubble

Abstract

In this work, we present a simulation study of equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) in the evening time ionosphere. The fluid simulation is performed with a high grid resolution, enabling us to probe the steepened updrafting density structures inside EPB. Inside the density depletion that eventually evolves as EPB, both density and updraft are functions of space from which the density as implicit function of updraft velocity or the density distribution function is constructed. In the present study, this distribution function and the corresponding probability distribution function are found to evolve from Maxwellian to non-Maxwellian as the initial small depletion grows to EPB. This non-Maxwellian distribution is of a gentle-bump type, in confirmation with the recently reported distribution within EPB from space-borne measurements that offer favorable condition for small scale kinetic instabilities.