Ariel VI Observations of Sco X-1

It has been popular and empirically quite successful to describe the entire continuum electromagnetic spectrum of Sco X-1 in terms of emission from an isothermal plasma at a temperature of about 50 million degrees K. Many workers have emphasised the need to consider multiple Compton scatterings in the calculation of the emergent spectrum and have pointed out that this process produces important modifications to the spectral shape at X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths.