Single‐Site IPS Power Spectra Analysis for Space Weather Products Using Cross‐Correlation Function Results From EISCAT and MERLIN IPS Data

Abstract

AbstractInterplanetary scintillation (IPS) manifests itself as a variation in the radio signal received from a distant, compact radio source on the sky. The intensity fluctuations of the radio waves are caused by density inhomogeneities in the outflowing solar plasma across the heliosphere. IPS allows us to infer solar wind speed and density variations along the line of sight. There are two types of techniques in the literature to infer solar wind speed using IPS data sets: single‐site analysis (SSA), where the power spectra from single time series are analyzed to obtain solar wind parameters, and multisite analysis, where the cross‐correlation function of data from two or more widely separated sites is used. The selection of the analysis technique depends on the number of sites available to each IPS system. In order to combine and complement solar wind speed determinations from different instruments, it is important to validate results and methodologies of the two techniques. In this paper, we analyzed previously well‐studied European Incoherent SCATter (EISCAT) and Multi‐Element Radio‐Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) observations of IPS with well‐known results from the cross‐correlation function methodology. We applied the SSA technique to each of the individual EISCAT and MERLIN IPS power spectra. This work shows the capabilities of the SSA to describe complex events and seeks to obtain improved parameter fits using the SSA methodology.