High‐Latitude Radio Star Scintillation Measurements at 68 Mc/s Made With a Phase‐Sweep Interferometer System

A quantitative evaluation and comparison are made of independent 68 Mc/s angular and amplitude scintillation data received at the College, Alaska, experimental station. A phase‐sweep interferometer system is employed and the outputs are digitized for subsequent analyses. A correlation analysis is made between ionospheric absorption, magnetic variation, and the angular and amplitude scintillation data. Some results are presented which show an association between short‐term absorption events and the enhancement of scintillation activity. Power spectral analysis and cross‐correlation analysis are made of the experimental data. Given theoretical ionization models, the computed ground diffraction patterns are compared with experimental data. The majority of the observations are consistent with an ionospheric model comprised of kilometer‐scale electron density gradients in combination with random scatterers.