SOLAR SCINTILLOMETRY - CALIBRATION OF SIGNALS AND ITS USE FOR SEEING MEASUREMENTS

Since 1993 it is known that there is a good correlation between the sc intillation in the solar irradiance and solar image quality (Seykora, 1993). This: effect is now being used in a number of experiments to ev aluate solar image quality and to measure site seeing. In this paper w e explore further the calibration of this scintillation (sigma(I)) in terms of the Fried parameter (r(0)) taking into account variations in the refractive index structure constant C-N(2) with height (h), zenith distance (zeta) dependence and the effects of wind velocities. A vari ant in the scintillometer setup is proposed which decreases sharply th e dependance on C-N(2) (h), zeta, and the wind velocities. It uses an array of scintillometers. The same array can be used to measure the C- N(2) (h) profile with height. Some preliminary results or the calibrat ion of current NSO site survey measurements are presented.