Studies of the Angular Structure of Scintillating Radio Sources at 111 MHz

Abstract

The angular sizes and compactnesses of 53 scintillating radio sources observed at 111 MHz on the Large Phased Array of the Lebedev Physical Institute are estimated. The parameters of the angular structures of the sources are estimated using a new method based on a joint analysis of the scintillation index and the asymmetry coefficient for the statistical distribution of the intensity fluctuations. The asymmetry coefficient for scintillations of a point source is estimated based on an analysis of observational data for turbulence in the solar wind. Different methods for estimating source angular sizes based on observations of interplanetary scintillations are compared. It is shown that the proposed new method is suitable for sources with angular sizes up to 1″. The accuracy of the estimated angular sizes and compactnesses of the sources is about 40%.