Diurnal and seasonal variations of OTS amplitude scintillations

The letter reports on scintillation measurements of the orbital test satellite (OTS) BO carrier which were carried out from June to December 1983. The scintillations are characterised here by the variance of amplitude deviations from their mean. The diurnal distribution of variances exceeding a certain threshold in summer shows a strong maximum in the early afternoon and a less pronounced one around midnight. In winter these maxima are displaced by 5 and 8 h, respectively. The results on the seasonal variations indicate that stronger fluctuations occurred more frequently in summer than in winter.