Ionospheric scintillation theory--A mini-review

In this paper we briefly review the theories that are used to interpret ionospheric scintillation data. We have emphasized the full structure of the complex signal, because it is now being directly measured with a number of satellites that carry multifrequency phase-coherent beacons. The data that have been analyzed to date clearly show that large phase variations (greater than one radian) are an omnipresent feature of transionospheric signals.