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Abstract Observations of coherent scatter from patchy sporadicElayers in the subauroral zone made with a 30‐MHz coherent scatter radar imager are presented. The quasiperiodic (QP) echoes are similar to what has been observed at middle latitudes but with some differences. The echoes arise from bands of scatterers aligned mainly northwest to southeast and propagating to the southwest. A notable difference from observations at middle latitudes is the appearance of secondary irregularities or braids oriented obliquely to the primary bands and propagating mainly northward along them. We present a spectral simulation of the patchy layers that describes neutral atmospheric dynamics with the incompressible Navier Stokes equations and plasma dynamics with an extended MHD model. The simulation is initialized with turning shears in the form of an Ekman spiral. Ekman‐type instability deforms the sporadicElayer through compressible and incompressible motion. The layer ultimately exhibits both the QP bands and the braids, consequences mainly of primary and secondary neutral dynamic instability. Vorticity due to dynamic instability is an important source of structuring in the sporadicElayer. 

Abstract Observations of 30‐MHz coherent backscatter from sporadic‐Eionization layers were obtained with a VHF imaging radar located in Ithaca, New York. The volume probed by the radar lies at relatively high magnetic latitudes, on the northern edge of the mid‐latitude region and underneath the ionospheric trough. Banded, quasi‐periodic (QP) echoes observed from Ithaca are similar to those found in lower midlatitude regions. The Doppler shifts observed are smaller and, so far, do not appear to reach the threshold for Farley‐Buneman instability. However, many of the echoes exhibit fine‐scale structure, with secondary bands or braids oriented obliquely to the primary bands. Secondary bands have been seen only rarely at lower middle latitudes. In previous observations, the QP scattering has been linked to unstable neutral wind shears. Neutral wind shear commonly found in the lower thermosphere could play a key role in the formation of these irregularities and explain some morphological features of the resulting plasma density irregularities and the radar echoes. We consider whether neutral instability and turbulence in the lower thermosphere is the likely cause for some of the structuring in the sporadic‐Elayers. Results of 3D numerical simulations of atmospheric dynamics in the mesosphere to lower thermosphere support the proposition. In particular, we focus on Ekman‐type instabilities that, like the more common Kelvin‐Helmholtz instabilities, are inflection point instabilities, although specifically associated with turning shears, and result in convective rolls aligned close to the mean wind direction, with smaller‐scale secondary waves aligned normal to the primary structures. 

Abstract Observations of backscatter from field‐aligned plasma density irregularities in sporadicE(E_s) layers made with a 30‐MHz coherent scatter radar imager in Ithaca, New York are presented and analyzed. The volume probed by the radar lies at approximately 54° geomagnetic latitude, under the midlatitude trough and at the extreme northern edge of the zone whereE_slayers are prevalent. Nonetheless, the irregularities exhibit many of the characteristics of quasiperiodic echoes observed commonly at lower middle latitudes. These include a tendency to occur in elongated bands stretching from the northwest to southeast in the Northern hemisphere separated by tens of kilometers and propagating to the southwest. In addition, the irregularities were found to exhibit finer‐scale structures with secondary bands oriented nearly normally to the primary bands. We investigate the proposition that the primary bands are telltale ofE_s‐layer structuring caused by neutral Kelvin Helmholtz (KH) instability in the lower thermosphere and that the secondary bands signify secondary KH instability. Results from a 3D numerical simulation of KH support this proposition.