Radio synthesis imaging of anisotropic angular broadening in the solar wind |
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| Authors: | K R Anantharamaiah Pradeep Gothoskar T J Cornwell |
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| Institution: | (1) Raman Research Institute, 560 080 Bangalore, India;(2) National Center for Radio Astrophysics, Poona University Campus, Ganeshkhind, 430 001 Pune, India;(3) National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Very Large Array, 87801 Socorro, NM, USA |
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| Abstract: | We present Very Large Array observations at wavelengths of 2, 3.5, 6, and 20 cm, of angular broadening of radio sources due
to the solar wind in the region 2–16 solar radii. Angular broadening is anisotropic with axial ratios in the range 2–16. Larger
axial ratios are observed preferentially at smaller solar distances. Assuming that anisotropy is due to scattering blobs elongated
along magnetic field lines, the distribution of position angles of the elliptically broadened images indicates that the field
lines are non-radial even at the largest heliocentric distances observed here. At 5R⊙, the major axis scattering angle is
∼ 0.7" atλ= 6 cm and it varies with heliocentric distance asR
-1.6. The level of turbulence, characterized by the wave structure function at a scale of 10 km along the major axis, normalized
toλ = 20 cm, has a value 20 ± 7 at 5R⊙and varies with heliocentric distance asR
-3. Comparison with earlier resu lts suggest that the level of turbulence is higher during solar maximum. Assuming a power-law
spectrum of electron density fluctuations, the fitted spectral exponents have values in the range 2.8–3.4 for scale sizes
between 2–35 km. The data suggests temporal fluctuations (of up to 10%) in the spectral exponent on a time scale of a few
tens of minutes. The observed structure functions at different solar distances do not show any evidence for an inner scale;
the upper limits are l k m at 2R⊙ and 4 km at 13R⊙. These upper limits are in conflict with earlier determinations and may suggest a reduced inner scale during solar maximum. |
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| Keywords: | Sun: solar wind scintillations angular broadening Methods: observational radio imaging |
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