摘要： This paper investigates the physical mechanism of an unusual equatorial electron density structure, plasma cave, located underneath the equatorial ionization anomaly by using theoretical simulations. The simulation results provide important new understanding of the dynamics of the equatorial ionosphere. It has been suggested previously that unusual E⇀×B⇀ drifts might be responsible for the observed plasma cave structure, but model simulations in this paper suggest that the more likely cause is latitudinal meridional neutral wind variations. The neutral winds are featured by two divergent wind regions at off‐equator latitudes and a convergent wind region around the magnetic equator, resulting in plasma divergences and convergence, respectively, to form the plasma caves structure. The tidal‐decomposition analysis further suggests that the cave related meridional neutral winds and the intensity of plasma cave are highly associated with the migrating terdiurnal tidal component of the neutral winds. Key Points This paper is the first simulation study for the ionospheric plasma cave The plasma cave can be successfully reproduced by SAMI3 with neutral wind model The atmosphere‐ionosphere interaction is important for plasma cave structure 其他題名： J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics 出版者： Washington: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 出版日期： 2014-12 出處： Journal of geophysical research : Space physics (2013 - Present), 2014-12, Vol.119 (12), p.10,324-10,335 資源來源： Wiley Online Library All Journals 版權： 2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. 版權： 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. 識別號： ISSN: 2169-9380 識別號： ISSN: 2169-9402 識別號： EISSN: 2169-9402 識別號： DOI: 10.1002/2014JA020235
