Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation
© 2014. American Geophysical Union. Intensity scintillations of cosmic radio sources are used to study astrophysical plasmas like the ionosphere, the solar wind, and the interstellar medium. Normally, these observations are relatively narrow band. With Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) technology at the K...
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ftcdlib:qt60p332km 2023-05-15T17:03:43+02:00 Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation Fallows, RA Coles, WA Mckay-Bukowski, D Vierinen, J Virtanen, II Postila, M Ulich, T Enell, CF Kero, A Iinatti, T Lehtinen, M Orispää, M Raita, T Roininen, L Turunen, E Brentjens, M Ebbendorf, N Gerbers, M Grit, T Gruppen, P Meulman, H Norden, MJ deReijer, JP Schoenmakers, A Stuurwold, K 2015-01-01 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/60p332km english eng eScholarship, University of California qt60p332km http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/60p332km public Fallows, RA; Coles, WA; Mckay-Bukowski, D; Vierinen, J; Virtanen, II; Postila, M; et al.(2015). Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation. Journal of Geophysical Research A: Space Physics. doi:10.1002/2014JA020406. UC San Diego: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/60p332km article 2015 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JA020406 2018-02-16T23:52:37Z © 2014. American Geophysical Union. Intensity scintillations of cosmic radio sources are used to study astrophysical plasmas like the ionosphere, the solar wind, and the interstellar medium. Normally, these observations are relatively narrow band. With Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) technology at the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array (KAIRA) station in northern Finland we have observed scintillations over a three-octave bandwidth. "Parabolic arcs," which were discovered in interstellar scintillations of pulsars, can provide precise estimates of the distance and velocity of the scattering plasma. Here we report the first observations of such arcs in the ionosphere and the first broadband observations of arcs anywhere, raising hopes that study of the phenomenon may similarly improve the analysis of ionospheric scintillations. These observations were made of the strong natural radio source Cygnus-A and covered the entire 30-250 MHz band of KAIRA. Well-defined parabolic arcs were seen early in the observations, before transit, and disappeared after transit although scintillations continued to be obvious during the entire observation. We show that this can be attributed to the structure of Cygnus-A. Initial results from modeling these scintillation arcs are consistent with simultaneous ionospheric soundings taken with other instruments and indicate that scattering is most likely to be associated more with the topside ionosphere than the F region peak altitude. Further modeling and possible extension to interferometric observations, using international LOFAR stations, are discussed. Article in Journal/Newspaper Kilpisjärvi Northern Finland University of California: eScholarship Kilpisjärvi ENVELOPE(20.767,20.767,69.034,69.034) Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 119 12 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
English |
description |
© 2014. American Geophysical Union. Intensity scintillations of cosmic radio sources are used to study astrophysical plasmas like the ionosphere, the solar wind, and the interstellar medium. Normally, these observations are relatively narrow band. With Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) technology at the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array (KAIRA) station in northern Finland we have observed scintillations over a three-octave bandwidth. "Parabolic arcs," which were discovered in interstellar scintillations of pulsars, can provide precise estimates of the distance and velocity of the scattering plasma. Here we report the first observations of such arcs in the ionosphere and the first broadband observations of arcs anywhere, raising hopes that study of the phenomenon may similarly improve the analysis of ionospheric scintillations. These observations were made of the strong natural radio source Cygnus-A and covered the entire 30-250 MHz band of KAIRA. Well-defined parabolic arcs were seen early in the observations, before transit, and disappeared after transit although scintillations continued to be obvious during the entire observation. We show that this can be attributed to the structure of Cygnus-A. Initial results from modeling these scintillation arcs are consistent with simultaneous ionospheric soundings taken with other instruments and indicate that scattering is most likely to be associated more with the topside ionosphere than the F region peak altitude. Further modeling and possible extension to interferometric observations, using international LOFAR stations, are discussed. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fallows, RA Coles, WA Mckay-Bukowski, D Vierinen, J Virtanen, II Postila, M Ulich, T Enell, CF Kero, A Iinatti, T Lehtinen, M Orispää, M Raita, T Roininen, L Turunen, E Brentjens, M Ebbendorf, N Gerbers, M Grit, T Gruppen, P Meulman, H Norden, MJ deReijer, JP Schoenmakers, A Stuurwold, K |
spellingShingle |
Fallows, RA Coles, WA Mckay-Bukowski, D Vierinen, J Virtanen, II Postila, M Ulich, T Enell, CF Kero, A Iinatti, T Lehtinen, M Orispää, M Raita, T Roininen, L Turunen, E Brentjens, M Ebbendorf, N Gerbers, M Grit, T Gruppen, P Meulman, H Norden, MJ deReijer, JP Schoenmakers, A Stuurwold, K Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
author_facet |
Fallows, RA Coles, WA Mckay-Bukowski, D Vierinen, J Virtanen, II Postila, M Ulich, T Enell, CF Kero, A Iinatti, T Lehtinen, M Orispää, M Raita, T Roininen, L Turunen, E Brentjens, M Ebbendorf, N Gerbers, M Grit, T Gruppen, P Meulman, H Norden, MJ deReijer, JP Schoenmakers, A Stuurwold, K |
author_sort |
Fallows, RA |
title |
Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
title_short |
Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
title_full |
Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
title_fullStr |
Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
title_sort |
broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/60p332km |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(20.767,20.767,69.034,69.034) |
geographic |
Kilpisjärvi |
geographic_facet |
Kilpisjärvi |
genre |
Kilpisjärvi Northern Finland |
genre_facet |
Kilpisjärvi Northern Finland |
op_source |
Fallows, RA; Coles, WA; Mckay-Bukowski, D; Vierinen, J; Virtanen, II; Postila, M; et al.(2015). Broadband meter-wavelength observations of ionospheric scintillation. Journal of Geophysical Research A: Space Physics. doi:10.1002/2014JA020406. UC San Diego: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/60p332km |
op_relation |
qt60p332km http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/60p332km |
op_rights |
public |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JA020406 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics |
container_volume |
119 |
container_issue |
12 |
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1766057648813244416 |