  A strong case has been made that radio waves from sources within about half a
degree of the Galactic Center undergo extreme diffractive scattering. However,
problems arise when standard (``Kolmogorov'') models of electron density
fluctuations are employed to interpret the observations of scattering in
conjunction with those of free-free radio emission. Specifically, the outer
scale of a Kolmogorov spectrum of electron density fluctuations is constrained
to be so small that it is difficult to identify an appropriate astronomical
setting. Moreover, an unacceptably high turbulent heating rate results if the
outer scale of the velocity field coincides with that of the density
fluctuations. We propose an alternative model based on folded magnetic field
structures that have been reported in numerical simulations of small-scale
dynamos. Nearly isothermal density variations across thin current sheets
suffice to account for the scattering. There is no problem of excess turbulent
heating because the outer scale for the velocity fluctuations is much larger
than the widths of the current sheets. We speculate that interstellar magnetic
fields could possess geometries that reflect their origins: fields maintained
by the galactic dynamo could have large correlation lengths, whereas those
stirred by local energetic events might exhibit folded structures.
