Simultaneous Observations of Large Enhancement In the Flux of PSR 0950+08 Over a 200 km Baseline at 103 MHz

Abstract

Interplanetary Scintillation (IPS) is a diffraction phenomenon in which coherent electro-magnetic radiation, from a distant radio source, passes through the solar wind, which is a turbulent refracting medium, and suffers scattering. This results in random temporal variations of the signal intensity (scintillation) at the Earth. IPS observations to monitor the interplanetary medium (IPM), to measure solar wind velocities in the directions of a number of compact extra-galactic radio sources and to estimate the angular diameters of their compact components have been carried out for many years at 103 MHz using the IPS facility (Alurkar et al. 1989) of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, India. Over a period of approximately 10 years of such observations, it has been seen that PSR 0950+08 has always remained well within the noise level. We observed a sudden enhancement in its flux (Deshpande et al. 1994) on 29 July, 1992. The ionospheric observations which are being carried out on a regular basis at PRL using an ionosonde also recorded a steep increase in the absorption index Fmin, which is an indicator of the excess ionization produced due to X-rays. During this period, the Sun was exceptionally quiet, thereby raising the question about the origin of the X-ray flux responsible for the observed steep rise in Fminduring the transit of PSR 0950+08.