Radio-wave propagation through a medium containing electron-density fluctuations described by an anisotropic Goldreich-Sridhar spectrum

Abstract

We study the propagation of radio waves through a medium possessing density fluctuations that are elongated along the ambient magnetic field and described by an anisotropic Goldreich-Sridhar power spectrum. We derive general formulas for the wave phase structure function, visibility, angular broadening, diffraction-pattern length scales, and scintillation time scale for arbitrary distributions of turbulence along the line of sight, and specialize these formulas to idealized cases.

25 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ