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Spacecraft Radio Scintillation and Solar System ExplorationWhen a wave propagates through a turbulent medium, scattering by the random refractive index inhomogeneities can lead to a wide variety of phenomena that have been the subject of extensive study. The observed scattering effects include amplitude or intensity scintillation, phase scintillation, angular broadening, and spectral broadening, among others. In this paper, I will refer to these scattering effects collectively as scintillation. Although the most familiar example is probably the twinkling of stars (light wave intensity scintillation by turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere), scintillation has been encountered and investigated in such diverse fields as ionospheric physics, oceanography, radio astronomy, and radio and optical communications. Ever since planetary spacecraft began exploring the solar system, scintillation has appeared during the propagation of spacecraft radio signals through planetary atmospheres, planetary ionospheres, and the solar wind. Early studies of these phenomena were motivated by the potential adverse effects on communications and navigation, and on experiments that use the radio link to conduct scientific investigations. Examples of the latter are radio occultation measurements (described below) of planetary atmospheres to deduce temperature profiles, and the search for gravitational waves. However,these concerns soon gave way to the emergence of spacecraft radio scintillation as a new scientific tool for exploring small-scale dynamics in planetary atmospheres and structure in the solar wind, complementing in situ and other remote sensing spacecraft measurements, as well as scintillation measurements using natural (celestial) radio sources. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe and review the solar system spacecraft radio scintillation observations, to summarize the salient features of wave propagation analyses employed in interpreting them, to underscore the unique remote sensing capabilities and scientific relevance of the scintillation measurements, and to highlight some of the scientific results obtained to date. Special emphasis is placed on comparing the remote sensing features of planetary and terrestrial scintillation measurements, and on contrasting spacecraft and natural radio source scintillation measurements. I will first discuss planetary atmospheres and ionospheres, and then the solar wind.
Document ID
19970031744
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Woo, Richard
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 17, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1993
Publication Information
Publisher: Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
Subject Category
Communications And Radar
Report/Patent Number
NAS 1.26:203357
NASA-CR-203357
Meeting Information
Meeting: Wave Propagation in Random Media (Scintillation)
Location: Seattle, WA
Country: United States
Start Date: August 3, 1992
End Date: August 7, 1992
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Accession Number
97N72392
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS7-900
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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