The Origin of Radio Scintillation In the Local Interstellar Medium

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origin of radio scintillation in the local interstellar medium by analyzing quasar sources and their interaction with nearby ionized clouds, linking turbulence to cloud dynamics.

Contribution

It identifies the role of interacting warm interstellar clouds near the Sun in generating turbulence causing radio scintillation.

Findings

Scintillation sources pass through edges of ionized clouds.

Cloud velocities match scintillation flow fits.

Cloud interactions likely produce turbulence responsible for scintillation.

Abstract

We study three quasar radio sources (B1257-326, B1519-273, and J1819+385) that show large amplitude intraday and annual scintillation variability produced by the Earth's motion relative to turbulent-scattering screens located within a few parsecs of the Sun. We find that the lines of sight to these sources pass through the edges of partially ionized warm interstellar clouds where two or more clouds may interact. From the gas flow vectors of these clouds, we find that the relative radial and transverse velocities of these clouds are large and could generate the turbulence that is responsible for the observed scintillation. For all three sight lines the flow velocities of nearby warm local interstellar clouds are consistent with the fits to the transverse flows of the radio scintillation signals.