US-UK Cooperative Research: Observations of Inner Solar Wind on the MERLIN Telescope Array

该奖项将支持加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Barney Rickett博士和英国曼彻斯特大学Jodrell Bank纳菲尔德射电天文实验室的Andrew G. Lyne博士之间的合作研究。研究人员建议对小直径射电源的行星际闪烁进行合作观测。这项技术需要3个或更多的射电望远镜，每台望远镜相距10到200公里，每台望远镜都接收来自同一个小直径天体射电源的信号。英国的MERLIN天线系统是唯一适合这种观测的。Drs。里基特和莱恩建议在10到50个太阳半径范围内进行测量，以估计太阳风的速度和方向。这个区域是宇宙飞船无法到达的，对于寻找驱动太阳风以超音速扩张的过程具有相当大的兴趣。

This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Barney Rickett, University of California at San Diego, and Dr. Andrew G. Lyne, Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratory, Jodrell Bank, University of Manchester, England. The investigators propose to carry out collaborative observations of interplanetary scintillations of small diameter radio sources. This technique requires three or more radio telescopes at separations of 10 to 200 kilometers, each receiving signals from the same small diameter celestial radio source. The MERLIN antenna system in England is uniquely suitable for such observations. Drs. Rickett and Lyne propose to make measurements from which the speed and direction of the solar wind can be estimated in a range of distances of 10 to 50 solar radii. This region is inaccessible to spacecraft and is of considerable interest in the search for the process that drives the solar wind to expand at supersonic speeds.