Evidence for a continuous, power law, electron density irregularity spectrum

Abstract

The spectral form of the irregularities in electron density that cause interplanetary scintillation (IPS) of small angular diameter radio sources is discussed. The intensity scintillation technique always yields an irregularity scale size, which is of the order of the first Fresnel zone for the wavelength at which the observations are taken. This includes not only the radio wavelength measurements of the structure of the interplanetary medium, but also radio wavelength measurements of the irregularity structure of the ionosphere and interstellar medium, and optical wavelength measurements of the irregularity structure of the atmosphere.