Multi-Frequency Studies of Intrinsic Intraday Variability

Intraday variability is detected in Blazars throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. Only radio emission is affected by interstellar scintillation. The characteristics of variability observed at different frequencies are often similar and suggest that intrinsic variations also contribute to the changes detected in the radio wavelength regime. This in turn implies very high brightness temperatures. Unambiguous signatures of scintillation and of intrinsic changes have been identified. The properties of intrinsic variations are reviewed to illustrate their potential contribution to variability in the radio domain. Such intrinsic changes need to be discriminated against when studying scintillation in quasars and BL Lac objects. Observations of scintillating sources and of sources with significant intrinsic IDV suggest interesting modifications to the standard paradigm of AGN. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.