PDS_VERSION_ID = PDS3 RECORD_TYPE = STREAM OBJECT = TEXT PUBLICATION_DATE = 1998-10-30 NOTE = "Experiment description for the Galileo Solar Wind Scintillation Experiments conducted in 1991-92 (from 91-353 through 92-045), 1993 (from 93-279 through 93-336), 1994 (from 94-309 through 94-361), 1995-96 (from 95-328 through 96-013), and 1996-97 (from 96-361 through 97-044). Formatted for display or printing with up to 78 constant- width characters per line." END_OBJECT = TEXT END Although the most interesting region of the solar wind is that surrounding the Sun, it has not yet been observed directly by spacecraft measurements. Until missions such as Solar Probe are flown, we must rely on remote sensing techniques with planetary spacecraft such as Galileo to probe the inner heliosphere. Radio scintillation and scattering measurements conducted during the Galileo superior conjunctions represent a powerful and essentially only tool for studying the complicated solar wind structure near the Sun. The Galileo solar wind radio scintillation experiment is based on observations of radio scattering phenomena that arise from the propagation of radio waves through the turbulent plasma of the solar wind. These consist of Doppler and amplitude scintillations (fluctuations), as well as broadening of Galileo's monochromatic S-band signal (spectral broadening). Characteristics of these phenomena and the deduced solar wind structure are obtained from the processing of narrowband DSP recordings of the Galileo radio signal. Successful DSP recordings are, therefore, important to the scintillation experiment. Interplanetary disturbances, which are manifested as transients in the scintillation and spectral broadening measurements, are of particular interest in the Galileo experiment. Correlations with events observed on the Sun (e.g., flares) and at spacecraft located near 1 AU (e.g., Pioneer Venus) will be made. These correlative studies are clearly most effective if continuous radio scintillation data are available. For this reason, prolonged periods of near-continuous tracking of Galileo have been arranged. During the approximately +1 month period surrounding superior conjunction, the Galileo radio signal will be probing the solar within about 0.3 AU of the Sun.