Solar Wind Observations Using STELab-IPS Array In Japan

Radio wave from a compact radio source such as a quasar are scattered by irregularities of electron density. The scattered waves interfere with each other as they propagate to the Earth producing diffraction patterns on the ground. This phenomenon is called interplanetary scintillation (IPS). The IPS pattern contains the information of solar wind velocities and density fluctuations passing across a line-of-sight (LOS) from an observer to a radio source. The IPS is a useful tool which allows us to measure the solar wind in three dimensional space inaccessible to in situ observations. Although the IPS measurement is an integral of solar wind velocities and density fluctuations along the LOS, which causes degradation of accuracy, we have succeeded to develop computer assisted tomography (CAT) analysis to remove the effect of LOS integration. These techniques greatly improved the accuracy of determinations of solar wind velocity structures. In this talk we present our IPS observation system and long-term variation of global solar wind structures from 1980-2009, then we focus on recent peculiar solar wind properties.