In this note we wish to report briefly the observation of sudden changes in the intensity of Sco X-1 by a factor of about 3 recorded in the energy interval 29.9–52.3 keV on December 22, 1968 between 04 h 27 m and 05 h 53 m UT. The observation was made with an X-ray telescope flown in a balloon from Hyderabad, India. The balloon was launched at 0200 hr UT and reached the ceiling of 7.5 g/cm2 of residual atmosphere at 0435 hr UT. The X-ray telescope consisted of a NaI(T1) crystal with an area of 97.3 cm2 and thickness 4 mm, surrounded by both active and passive collimators. The telescope was mounted on an oriented platform which was programmed to look in four specified directions successively, of azimuths, Φ=0°, 110°, 180° and 310° (Φ=0° being North and Φ=90°, West), spending about 4 min in each direction during a cycle of period of about 16 min. The axis of the telescope was inclined at an angle of 32° with respect to the zenith. A pair of crossed flux gate magnetometers provided information every 8.2 sec on the azimuth of the telescope. The pulse heights from the X-ray detector were sorted into several channels extending from 10 to 120 keV. An Am241 source came into the field of view of the telescope once in 15 min for about 30 sec to provide in-flight calibration of the detector. The meridian transit of Sco X-1 was at 0454 hr UT. Just before the balloon reached the ceiling Sco X-1 was in the field of view of the telescope for 3 min and 41 sec. After the balloon reached ceiling, Sco X-1 was in the field of view of the telescope on five occasions between 0443 and 0553 hr UT. During the last observation, however, the balloon had lost altitude by about 1 g/cm2. The excess counts due to Sco X-1 were obtained by subtracting the counting rates corresponding to the North direction which did not include any known X-ray sources. The observation on Sco X-1 in the 1st cycle was made while the balloon was still ascending and consequently the interposed grammage was changing from 10.5 to 9.7 g/cm2. However, for the energy range under consideration, the change in the background counting rate was not significant and there cannot be any doubt regarding the genuineness of the excess counts recorded.
Different modes of runaway electron beams generated in high-pressure gases