Refractive radio scintillation in the solar wind

Abstract
We have observed the strong radio source 3C279 with the Very Large Array radio interferometer when the source was at a solar elongation of |$0_.^\circ9$|⁠. The visibilities were measured with a time resolution of 6.67 s. We find convincing evidence of slow variations in the flux, which we interpret as refractive scintillation caused by large-scale density inhomogeneities in the solar wind. Furthermore, we find that the angular size of the scatter-broadened image of 3C279 fluctuates in a correlated fashion with the flux. This effect, which had been predicted theoretically, is verified here for the first time.

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