Scintillation Measurements of the Solar Wind Velocity in Strong Scattering near the Sun

The multi-antenna scintillation method of measuring the solar-wind velocity has been very effective, particularly near the Sun and at high heliographic latitudes where direct measurements are rare or non-existent. However, scintillation observations inherently involve an LOS integration. Several methods have been used to deal with this problem, but they all require the basic assumption that contributions from different parts of the LOS add linearly. This assumption is valid for weak scintillations where the Born approximation holds, but it is not correct for strong scintillations. In this article we compare simultaneous observations of the same radio source, and therefore the same solar wind, at radio wavelengths of 32 cm and 92 cm. The 32-cm observations at the European Incoherent Scatter Radar (EISCAT) were made in weak-scattering and those at 92 cm at the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STEL) were made in strong-scattering mode. The results showed no significant bias in velocity caused by strong scattering, confirming that the LOS inversion techniques can be extended into the strong-scattering regime.