First measurement of interplanetary scintillation with the ASKAP radio telescope: implications for space weather

Abstract

We report on a measurement of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. Although this proof-of-concept observation utilised just 3 seconds of data on a single source, this is nonetheless a significant result, since the exceptional wide field of view of ASKAP, and this validation of its ability to observe within 10 degrees of the Sun, mean that ASKAP has the potential to observe an interplanetary coronal mass ejection (CME) after it has expanded beyond the field of view of white light coronagraphs, but long before it has reached the Earth. We describe our proof of concept observation and extrapolate from the measured noise parameters to determine what information could be gleaned from a longer observation using the full field of view. We demonstrate that, by adopting a `Target Of Opportunity' (TOO) approach, where the telescope is triggered by the detection of a CME in white-light coronagraphs, the majority of interplanetary CMEs could be observed by ASKAP while in an elongation range $<$30 degrees. It is therefore highly complementary to the colocated Murchison Widefield Array, a lower-frequency instrument which is better suited to observing at elongations $>$20 degrees.

9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in special issue of Advances in Space Research (ASR) entitled "COSPAR Space Weather Roadmap 2022: Scientific Research and Applications"

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Detection and Characterisation of a Coronal Mass Ejection using Interplanetary Scintillation measurements from the Murchison Widefield Array
• Resolving moving heliospheric structures using interplanetary scintillation observations with the Murchison Widefield Array
• RadioSED I: Bayesian inference of radio SEDs from inhomogeneous surveys
• Different polarized components of the quasar 3C 286 revealed by FAST