A stable E¿B gradient drift geometry can become destabilized by a current along the magnetic field. This type of instability is generically called the current convective instability. This instability may be responsible for the diffuse auroral scintillation causing F region irregularities observed by the DNA Wideband satellite. In these phenomena the northward TEC gradient dominates the altitude electron density gradient. We have investigated a simple plasma fluid model and found that instability results for -k⋅Vd>k⋅ (cEo/Bo) (&ngr;i/&OHgr;i) where Vd is the relative drift (precipitation current) between ions and electrons along Bo, Eo is the westward ambient electric field (⊥Bo), and &ngr;i and &OHgr;i are the F region ion-neutral collision frequency and ion gyrofrequency.