Scintillations of Radio Sources and Geomagnetic Activity

Abstract

The relationship between variations in the Earth's magnetic field and radio source scintillation has been somewhat obscure since the first observation by Little and Maxwell (1952) that, for sources observed through the Northern Auroral Zone, the scintillation rate, but not the amplitude, was closely correlated with the planetary K index. Since then a number of observers, mainly situated in high northern latitudes, also found no relation between the scintillation amplitude and geomagnetic activity. It is the purpose of the present communication to show that at southern temperate latitudes a relationship does exist between these quantities.