Extant, nested instrumentation at the Arecibo Observatory is augmented by supply of an imaging system capable of all-sky, mesoscale, or local fields-of-view. This instrument is to become a community accessible resource at Arecibo, and is here focused on studies of the triggering mechanisms of F-region irregularities. Simulations of generalized Perkins instabilities using measured ionospheric and thermospheric boundary conditions are used to compare triggering theory with observations. The research goals are to isolate irregularity seeding mechanisms, to classify instability structure evolution, and to determine the role of horizontal gradients (in state variables) in the generation of irregularities - while providing a broadly useful research instrument to the community at-large.
