Apparent radio transients mapping the near-Earth plasmaenvironment. (arXiv:2003.11138v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kuiack_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mark J. Kuiack</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wijers_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ralph A.M.J. Wijers</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Shulevski_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Aleksandar Shulevski</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Rowlinson_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Antonia Rowlinson</a>
We report the discovery of bright, fast, radio flares lasting tens of seconds
with the AARTFAAC high-cadence all-sky survey at 60 MHz. The vast majority of
these coincide with known, bright radio sources that brighten by factors of up
to 100 during such an event. We attribute them to magnification events induced
by plasma near the Earth, most likely in the densest parts of the ionosphere.
They can occur both in relative isolation, during otherwise quiescent
ionospheric conditions, and in large clusters during more turbulent ionospheric
conditions. We also find one event that has many properties in common with
these events, but has a very well-determined dispersion delay as a function of
frequency consistent with a very distant Galactic or extragalactic origin. If
astrophysical, it represents extreme emission with a minimum brightness
temperature of $10^{28-34}$ K.
We report the discovery of bright, fast, radio flares lasting tens of seconds
with the AARTFAAC high-cadence all-sky survey at 60 MHz. The vast majority of
these coincide with known, bright radio sources that brighten by factors of up
to 100 during such an event. We attribute them to magnification events induced
by plasma near the Earth, most likely in the densest parts of the ionosphere.
They can occur both in relative isolation, during otherwise quiescent
ionospheric conditions, and in large clusters during more turbulent ionospheric
conditions. We also find one event that has many properties in common with
these events, but has a very well-determined dispersion delay as a function of
frequency consistent with a very distant Galactic or extragalactic origin. If
astrophysical, it represents extreme emission with a minimum brightness
temperature of $10^{28-34}$ K.
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