Parkes observations for project P1422 semester 2026APRS_02

Interplanetery Scintillation (IPS) is a powerful observing technique for measuring the size and structure of radio sources, as well as characterising solar wind turbulence. Murriyang was used for IPS in the 1960 and 1980s for IPS observations. However, with the the UWL's ultra-wide bandwidth, we believe that Murriyang IPS observations can once again provide a unique science opportunity. Recent observations with the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope revealed an unexpected trend of scintillation timescale with frequency. Murriyang is the perfect instrument to corroborate this finding. Furthermore, we believe this effect is due to the inner scale of the turbulence, which can be uniquely probed with the high sensitivity and bandwidth of Murriyang in unprecedented detail, with a modest amount of observing time. As well as providing the most detailed study of the Heliosphere's inner scale yet, we can also determine if it can act as a new and direct probe of heliospheric density: an important complement to IPS and extremely useful for understanding the impact of the solar wind to pulsar DM variations. Finally, these observations will also provide useful insights for instrumental systematics on timescales rather longer than pulsar periods (1-10s) but similar to the timescales of the new class of Ultra-long period magnetars. Thus we can better understand whether Murriyang has a role to play in this important discovery space.