Quasi-periodic solar radio pulsations at decimetric wavelengths

Observations are reported of radio-pulsations at dm-wavelengths. The pulsations are quasiperiodic with a period of 0.5 s, they have a bandwidth > 300 MHz and show up to a 50% enhancement of the underlying type IV continuum.     

A model for solar radio pulsations at short centimetric band

In this paper, the observed solar radio pulsations during the bursts at 9.375 GHz are considered to be excited by some plasma instability. Under the condition of the conservation of energy in the wave-particle interaction, the saturation time of plasma instabilities is inversely proportional to the initial radiation intensity, which may explain why the repetition rate of the pulsations is directly proportional to the radio burst flux at 9.375 GHz as well as 15 GHz and 22 GHz. It is also predicted that the energy released in an individual pulse increases with increasing the flux of radio bursts, the modularity of the pulsations decreases with increasing the flux of radio bursts, these predictions are consistent with the statistical results at 9.375 GHz in different events. The energy density of the non-thermal particles in these events is estimated from the properties of pulsation. For the typical values of the ambient plasma density (10⁹ cm^–3) and the ratio between the nonthermal and ambient electrons (10^–4), the order of magnitude of the energy density and the average energy of the nonthermal electrons is 10^–4 erg/cm³ and 10 kev, respectively. It is interesting that there are two branches in a statistical relation between the repetition rate and the radio burst flux in a special event on March 11–17, 1989, which just corresponds to two different orders of magnitude for the quasi-quantized energy released in these five bursts. This result may be explained by the different ratios between the thermal and the nonthermal radiations.     

VLA observations of a radio plage at centimeter wavelengths

VLA observations of a solar plage region at 6 and 20 cm wavelengths are presented. The high frequency 6 cm emission correlates well with the associated sunspots, whereas 20 cm emission shows good correlation with the H plage. Large temperature variations over a period of one day are observed in the plage associated component without any significant changes in the sunspots. The dominant emission mechanisms at 6 and 20 cm are found to be gyroresonance radiation and bremstrahlung respectively. It is concluded that the coronal condensation above the chromospheric H plage has an electron density of 5 × 10⁹ cm^–3 and it extends to a height of 5 × 10⁴ km.     

Imaging observations of radio bursts at meter-decameter wavelengths

In this article, we review some of the recent results obtained with imaging observations of the Sun at meter-decameter wavelengths, using the Clark Lake multifrequency radioheliograph. We briefly discuss the use of imaging observations to study the large scale structure of the upper corona. We discuss non-flare associated type II/type IV bursts associated with a coronal streamer disruption event associated with a slow (100 Km/s) CME. We discuss meter-decameter microbursts, which occur at coronal heights, often without any surface activity. Finally, we discuss a correlated type III burst whose emission originates almost simultaneously from two widely separated ( 10⁵ Km) locations.     

Imaging observations of radio bursts at meter-decameter wavelengths

Solar Physics - In this article, we review some of the recent results obtained with imaging observations of the Sun at meter-decameter wavelengths, using the Clark Lake multifrequency...     

A time profile of millisecond pulsations of solar microwave radio bursts

An hypothesis on the interference origin of millisecond pulsations of solar-burst microwave radio emissions based on the fact that the signal scintillation appears as a result of radio-wave propagation through an inhomogeneous turbulent corona is considered. It is shown that the time profile of pulsations depends on the phase difference of interfering waves and can either look like pulses of “emission” and “absorption” or it can have a sawtooth form with slow buildup and fast drop. The observed properties of pulsations were compared with predictions of this model; this comparison showed that the formation of pulsations and their observed properties are satisfactorily explained by multipath propagation, which takes place at traversal of the coronal plasma by radio waves.     

Some characteristics of pulsations in radio bursts at 9.375 GHz

A type of pulsation in a time scale of seconds superimposed on microwave burst at 9.375 GHz has been found during the twenty-second solar active maximum period by us. This phenomenon is quite different from radio spike emission at decimeter and long centimeter wavelengths. The flux level of the bursts rises as the repetition rate of pulsations increases, following an approximate linear relationship. This feature resembles that at mm wavelength, but some other features are different. Some mechanisms for interpretation have been proposed.     

The radio radius of the Sun at millimeter and centimeter wavelengths

The radio radius of the Sun is determined from an analysis of the radio contact times of the 7 March, 1970 and 10 July, 1972 solar eclipses from = 3 mm to = 31 cm. Agreement with other eclipse measurements is good. A best fit curve through the several points gives the radio radius to within approximately ±0.01 of the photosheric radius below -5 cm.     

Solar radio bursts with a spectral flattening at millimeter wavelengths

An analysis of solar radio burst spectra in the range 3–80 GHz is carried out using measurements of the observatories at Bern and Nobeyama supplemented by data from worldwide network stations. Special interest was focused on strong events at frequencies above 30 GHz. It is found that there exists an extended group of events with a flattening of the spectra at millimeter wavelengths. In particular, two types of flattening are observed: (i) a high-frequency flattening either following a monotonic spectral flux increase at cm-waves or forming a flat broad-band spectrum at mm-wavelengths ; (ii) a millimetric flattening as a decrease of the slope (i.e., a hardening) of the descending branch of the spectrum having a peak in the microwave range. Besides this, in complicated bursts a strong temporal evolution of millimeter spectra may occur resulting in either type of the flattening. Some factors capable of producing the millimeter flattening are considered: (1) superposition of multiple source regions of gyrosynchrotron radiation, (2) gyromagnetic radiation from a two-component energy spectrum of the accelerated electrons at high energies, or by a temporal hardening of the electron spectrum during extended flares, and (3) optically thin bremsstrahlung of evaporated plasma.Presented at the CESRA Workshop on Coronal Magnetic Energy Release at Caputh near Potsdam in May 1994.     

Positions and motions of solar bursts at decameter wavelengths

The positions and motions of solar bursts in the range 20 to 60 MHz have been measured by the means of a sweep-frequency grating interferometer with angular resolution of 5 arc at 60 MHz decreasing to 15 arc at 20 MHz. The positional characteristics of the decameter wavelength bursts are discussed in terms of the commonly accepted theories of the origin of radio bursts from plasma and synchrotron radiations.     

Observational evidence for solar coronal decimetric radio pulsations with very short periods

Using the decimetric (700–1500 MHz) radio spectrometer and the synchronous observational system with high temporal resolution at four frequencies (1420, 2130, 2840 and 4260 MHz) of Yunnan Observatory, two rare events were observed on 2001 June 24 and 1990 July 30. The former was a small radio burst exhibiting pulsations with short periods (about 29, 40 and 100 ms) in the impulsive phase. The latter was a large radio burst, which at 2840 MHz produced radio pulsations with period of about 30 ms. This paper focuses on pulsations with very short periods in the range of 29–40 ms. The mechanism of generation of such pulsations may be modulation of radio radiation by the periodic trains of whistler packets originating in unstable regions of the corona. Alternatively, these pulsations can be attributed to wave-wave non-linear interactions of electrostatic upper hybrid waves driven by beams of precipitating electrons in flaring loops.     

The Ratio of the radio and optical diameters of the sun at centimeter wavelengths

The ratios of radio to optical diameter of the solar disc at 10.7 and 3 cm wavelengths are examined. The radio observations are daily east–west scans of the solar disc, made over the period 1975–1992, which includes almost two complete solar cycles. We find that the apparent disc diameter is slightly greater at solar minimum than it is at solar maximum, suggesting that the radio diameter varies over the cycle. Moreover, the ratio is smaller at 3 cm wavelength than it is at 10.7 cm, at both solar maximum and minimum.     

Flux-rms relation in solar radio bursts

One recent discovery that provides a strong constraint on the mechanisms of astrophysical activities is the correlation between the flux and the root-mean-squared (rms) variability of X-ray emission. In this work we study the flux-rms relation of solar radio bursts. Four flares observed by the Solar Radio Broadband Spectrometer (SRBS) of China are analyzed. In these flares, fine structures (FSs) emerge at least in one frequency band of SRBS. We find that the flux-rms relation consists of two components. One relates to the non-FS emission and the other to the FS emission. The flux-rms relationship for the non-FS part of the radio bursts is clearly different from that for the FS part. The former shows a curve-like behavior, while the latter shows a dramatic variation. We propose a model to describe the flux-rms relation of the non-FS part. Our results imply that the non-FS part emission could be triggered by some multiplicative processes. On the contrary, multiplicative mechanisms should be excluded from the explanations of FSs in the radio bursts.     

Transient magnetic disturbances from solar flare explosions and associated pulsations of type IV radio bursts

We have proposed a mechanism of arise of transient magnetic disturbances from solar flare explosion which can lead to understanding of observed pulsations of type IV radio emission with period of 0.3–3.0 s. According to the proposed mechanism the pulsation activity of the radio emission results from MHD waves accompanying the expanding diamagnetic plasma produced by the explosive flare material.     

Decay time of type III solar bursts observed at kilometric wavelengths

Type III bursts were observed between 3.5 MHz and 50 kHz by the University of Michigan radio astronomy experiment aboard the OGO-5 satellite.Decay times were measured and then combined with published data ranging up to about 200 MHz. The observed decay times increase with decreasing frequency but at a rate considerably slower than that expected from electron-proton Coulomb collisions. At 50 kHz values differ by about a factor of 100. Using Hartle and Sturrock's solar wind model, Coulomb collisional frequencies were computed and compared with the apparent collisional frequencies deduced from the observations. It was found that the ratio of observed to computed values varies with heliocentric distance according to an inverse 0.71 power. This is similar to an ad hoc function used by Wolff, Brandt, and Southwick to increase the electron-proton collisional energy exchange and make the solar wind theory agree with the measurements of electron and proton temperature near the Earth. These results may provide a clue about the nature of the non-collisional plasma wave damping process responsible for the short duration of type III bursts.     

Radio interferometric observations of solar bursts at 3.7 and 11.1 cm wavelengths

Several solar active regions were observed during the 1976 vernal equinox with the 3-element interferometer of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The element spacings for these observations were 600, 2100, and 2700 m, resulting in maximum angular resolutions of about 3 arc sec at 3.7 cm and 8.5 arc sec at 11.1 cm. We fitted the fringe visibility for each baseline pair as a function of projected baseline with a single gaussian component, and calculated the extrapolated flux at zero baseline, F ₀, the FWHM source size, a, and the peak brightness temperature T _b. We present physical parameters derived for the observed bursts.     

Structure and evolution of solar radio bursts at 26.4 MHz

Two dimensional source brightness distributions at 26.4 MHz for solar bursts of spectral type II, III, IV, and V are derived from observations with a multiple-baseline, time-sharing interferometer system. It was designed explicitly to study the large angle (40 halo) component of low frequency solar bursts first reported by Weiss and Sheridan (1962). Thirty-two bursts occurring in the interval of June–August, 1975, were fit with a circular gaussian core and an elliptical gaussian halo component. Half-power halo diameters (E-W×N-S) averaged 30×28 for type III bursts and 42×27, 28×37, 30×25 for type V, II and IV bursts respectively. Typical core sizes fell in the range of 10±4 giving 31 halo to core size ratio. All burst types were found to have some large angle structure: the specific intensity was 10% compared to the core but the total power in each component was comparable. Two processes for producing the core-halo structure of type III bursts are compared: scattering and refraction of a point source and refraction from many sources over an extended region. It is concluded that the core can be explained by either model but the halo is more consistent with emission from an extended source region of 40° in longitude.     

High resolution observations of solar bursts at 3.7 and 11.1 cm wavelengths

Four bursts were observed on August 9, 1973 with the NRAO 3-element interferometer at 3.7 and 11.1 cm. By using a simple source model we have calculated the temperature, flux, size and position of the small scale components of the bursts as a function of time. We obtained peak temperatures around 10⁷ K for the components with size of about 10 at 11.1 cm and 3 at 3.7cm. The peak flux of these components lies between 4 and 40 % of the total peak flux of the bursts. Two of the bursts were found to be right circularly polarized. There is evidence that the location of these two bursts does not coincide with the location of the brightest point of the associated active regions. The existence of burst structures with temperatures of the order of 10⁷K indicates that at least part of the radiation in these bursts is generated by a non-thermal mechanism.NAS-NRC Research Associate at Goddard Space Flight Center on Sabbatical Leave from the University of Maryland.

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Interplanetary phenomena and solar radio bursts

The relationship between solar radio emissions and transient interplanetary phenomena is reviewed. It is believed that the most significant advance in recent years has come from coordinated studies of coronal mass ejections and moving type IV bursts, where the evidence appears to favour the Langmuir wave hypothesis as the emission mechanism. Type II bursts are not generally a signature of the main energetic particle acceleration in flares. They do, however, occasionally propagate to 1 AU, and beyond, where they are normally accompanied by protons in the 20 MeV region. Apart from the impulsive microwave burst, there is no reliable radio signature associated with energetic particle acceleration in flares, although many phenomena have high correlations with radio emissions. The exceptions suggest that such correlations may be incidental. Therefore, it is concluded that attention should also be given to events with a positive absence of radio emission in order to make progress in understanding solar processes.Proceedings of the Workshop on Radio Continua during Solar Flares, held at Duino (Trieste), Italy, 27–31 May, 1985.     

Pulsating type IV solar radio bursts

Several models for pulsating type IV radio bursts are presented based on the assumption that the pulsations are the result of fluctuations in the synchrotron emission due to small variations in the magnetic field of the source. It is shown that a source that is optically thick at low frequencies due to synchrotron self-absorption exhibits pulsations that occur in two bands situated on either side of the spectral peak. The pulsations in the two bands are 180° out of phase and the band of pulsations at the higher frequencies is the more intense. In contrast, a synchrotron source that is optically thin at all frequencies and whose low frequency emission is suppressed due to the Razin effect develops only a single band of pulsations around the frequency of maximum emission. However, the flux density associated with the later model would be too small to explain the more intense pulsations that have been observed unless the source area is considerably larger than presently seems reasonable.