Scintillation

Scintillation is the change or fluctuation in the brightness or intensity of a source of light or other electromagnetic signals, caused by irregularities in the medium through which it travels. For example, when light passes through Earth's atmosphere, variations in air density cause the light to bend slightly differently, making stars appear to twinkle. In electronics, scintillation can refer to brief flashes of light produced in detectors when they are excited by ionizing radiation. Overall, it describes how signals or lights can vary unexpectedly due to environmental factors or interactions during transmission or detection.