Ionospheric suprathermal photoelectrons have relatively large cross sections for selected energies. In particular, electrons with energies of about 2.5 eV strongly excite nitrogen vibrational modes, while metastable states of oxygen are excited at about 5 eV. Thus an energy distribution based on chemical kinetic considerations give rise to a maximum at around 4 eV in the F region below 250 km. However, rocket experiments have shown that the expected peaks in the flux spectrum are relatively weak. This discrepancy is explained by the development of a linear instability leading to a wave-particle interaction. The linear mode is driven by the photoelectrons near the 4-eV maximum in the presence of a magnetic field. The effect is shown to be ineffective at sufficiently low altitudes, where collisionless theory fails.