scintillation
- noun
- /ˌsɪn.tɪˈleɪ.ʃən/
- Specialized
:
centelleo
- Diffractive intensity scintillations: intensity variations in both time and frequency, analogous to the twinkling of stars with very similar statistics, that are caused by constructive and destructive interference.
Examples
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Distant transmitters in the Milky Way: The longest path lengths yield qualitatively different effects as the scintillation timescale and bandwidth both get smaller with increasing distance.
Academic text (1999) -
Furthermore, any candidate signals found in future surveys should be expected to show scintillations in most circumstances.
Academic text (1999) -
Of these effects, diffractive intensity scintillation is the most important for SETI because the signal is modulated by 100%.
Academic text (1999) -
The phenomenon of radio scintillation was an analog of optical twinkling and indicated that the source was starlike.
Academic text (1991) -
On a clear night, the stars twinkled with beautiful scintillation as the atmosphere played tricks on our eyes.
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The scintillation of the stars made the night sky look magical, captivating everyone who watched.
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Astronomers studied the scintillation of distant stars to understand how Earth's atmosphere affects their light.
Synonyms
9
2.3
A quick flash of light that appears for a moment
Compounds
How Variable
Surface Forms
Morphology
scintillation = scintillate (transparent) = scintillate + ion
The twinkling of stars sense is a direct application of 'scintillate' + '-ion' and thus predictable from the base meaning.
Etymology
Scintillation comes from the Latin scintilla 'spark', and people used the idea of small sparks to describe the way stars seem to flash. So the twinkling of stars is called scintillation because the light looks like many tiny sparks in the sky.