Radio scintillations due to plasma irregularities with power law spectra: The interplanetary medium

The scintillation effects which are produced when radiation is incident on a medium containing phase changing irregularities which have power law spectra are discussed. The results are then applied to the interplanetary medium and it is concluded that the small scale sizes (≈100 km) for irregularities measured by interplanetary scintillation represent a genuine ‘outer scale’ distinct from the 10⁶ km scales detected by space probes. It is also shown that the small scale irregularities contain discontinuities which are finite or almost finite, with a sharpness as yet undetermined.