Goonhilly Sparklers

TL;DR

This paper proposes using the Goonhilly radio facility to monitor flux in compact radio quasars over a year, aiming to detect and analyze new radio-wave lensing events caused by the interstellar medium.

Contribution

It introduces a dedicated flux monitoring experiment at Goonhilly to identify and study radio-wave lensing events in quasars, addressing data sparsity issues.

Findings

Potential to identify approximately 6 new lensing events

Enhanced understanding of interstellar medium effects on radio waves

Feasibility of dedicated year-long monitoring at Goonhilly

Abstract

Flux monitoring of compact radio quasars has revealed dramatic radio-wave lensing events which challenge our understanding of the interstellar medium. However, the data on these events remain very sparse. Here we consider how the Goonhilly radio astronomical facility can make an impact on this problem by dedicating one or more dishes to flux monitoring for a period of one year. Such an experiment would be able to identify \sim6 new events and study them in detail.