Abstract This study investigates the linkage between mesopause gravity waves and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) from 2012 to 2015 using the collocated nightglow measurements, O 2 (762 nm) and OI (630 nm), observed by the Visible and near‐Infrared Spectral Imager onboard the International Space Station under the Ionosphere, Mesosphere, upper Atmosphere, and Plasmasphere (ISS‐IMAP/VISI) mission, along with the ionospheric observations from FORMOSAT‐3/COSMIC (F3/C). ISS‐IMAP/VISI observed a persistent three‐peak longitudinal structure of gravity wave activity near the magnetic equator in South American, African, and South Asian sectors across all seasons. The gravity waves also exhibit significant seasonal latitudinal variations, consistent with the seasonal migration of the Inter‐Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Notably, the longitudinal distribution of gravity wave occurrences aligns well with the longitudinal pattern of EPB occurrence observed by both VISI and F3/C, particularly over the South American‐African sectors, establishing that ITCZ‐driven gravity waves are the potential seeding source for EPBs. Analysis of ionospheric background conditions relevant to Rayleigh‐Taylor instability confirms that while these conditions strongly influence the seasonal‐longitudinal distribution of EPBs, the presence of gravity waves acts as the modulator of EPB occurrence. Overall, the VISI EPB occurrence rates are consistent with the product of VISI gravity wave and favorable background condition probabilities, demonstrating that the climatology of EPBs is synergistically governed by the gravity wave seeding and ionospheric conditions.
Chou et al. (Sun,) studied this question.