Data Records

Data has been continuously recorded at three sites for a period of some years by the group and a substantive database of Transit satellite pass records exists. As a courtesy to interested persons, a segment of the recorded data has been made available for ftp transfer and a brief descrition of some nomenclature.

The observations of the group have been conducted using three stations. The stations are located along a meridonial line, with two stations being close together and the remaining station quite distant. The closely grouped stations are located within the city of Brisbane (27.5°S, 152.9°E, geographic, 35.6° invariant latitude), with the remaining station 150 km to the north. The relative positions of the recording stations, can be viewed in the figure below.


S - University of Queensland, T - Taringa, B - Boreen Point

In mid-latitudes, four different types of scintillations have been identified, as per Hajkowicz, 1994. These four types are:

  1. N type - irregularities located near the equatorial scintillation oval edge
  2. P type - irregularities in close grouping near magnetic zenith
  3. PS type - similar to P type but with patch away from magnetic zenith
  4. S type - irregularities located near auroral scintillation oval edge
Each type may further have two particular forms of record structure, the record displaying random or quasiperiodic scintillations. Seasonal variations, diurnal variations and sunspot cycles can be found in the occurrence distribution for the types, showing the S type to be predominant at sunspot maximum during the summer nighttime and P to be most frequent during the sunspot minimum during winter nights. N and PS type scintillations are relatively infrequent at the observation stations used.

In terms of the records made available, most records show P type random scintillations. Some special records are also available showing very strong patch scintillations, (no distinction between P and PS type), and some quasiperiodic (QP) scintillations, (type not specified). More information on the QP and strong patch scintillations is available on request.

In addition to the data files containing the records, software developed to view the digital records is also available. The nature of the file processing makes it very easy to recognise a scintillation event from background fluctuations such as the signal intensity variation during the pass. All data files have been compressed using the UNIX gzip utility.

Download files

Download analysis software

For further information on the use of analysis programs or to request files not available, please contact us.

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Last updated 06/01/1997 by Mark Keir