A Visual Method of Time Scale Determination using a PC for Radio Sources

Variability is one of the extremely observational properties. In the radio bands, variability is caused by the shock in the jet. In this case, emissions increase rapidly following an exponential curve, and then decrease rapidly also in an exponential curve. The variability time scale is important with regard to the physics carrying on in the jet. However, it is not easy to fit the light curve. In this paper, we proposed a method of light curve fitting on a PC machine, in which the theoretical exponential light curve is adopted to the observations using the least regression method. Using this method, anybody can fit the light curve and get the time scale by moving and clicking the mouse. We also used this method to some light curves obtained from the archive and compared our results with those in the literature.