noun
- the act of scintillating; sparkling.
- a spark or flash.
- Astronomy. the twinkling or tremulous effect of the light of the stars.
- Meteorology. any small-scale twinkling or shimmering of objects that are viewed through the atmosphere, caused by an interception of the observer’s line of view by inhomogeneities in the atmospheric refractive index.
- Physics.
- a flash of light from the ionization of a phosphor struck by an energetic photon or particle.
- random fluctuation of the amplitude, phase, or polarization of an electromagnetic wave.
- (on a radar display) a slight, rapid shifting of a spot of light or the image of an object about its mean position.
noun
- the act of scintillating
- a spark or flash
- the twinkling of stars or radio sources, caused by rapid changes in the density of the earth’s atmosphere, the interplanetary medium, or the interstellar medium, producing uneven refraction of starlight
- physics a flash of light produced when a material scintillates
n.1620s, from Latin scintilationem (nominative scintillatio), noun of action from past participle stem of scintillare (see scintillate). n.
- A spark; a flash.
- A flash of light produced in a phosphor by absorption of an ionizing particle or photon.