No Arabic abstract
Incoherent solar radio radiation comes from the free-free, gyroresonance, and gyrosynchrotron emission mechanisms. Free-free is primarily produced from Coulomb collisions between thermal electrons and ions. Gyroresonance and gyrosynchrotron result from the acceleration of low-energy electrons and mildly relativistic electrons, respectively, in the presence of a magnetic field. In the non-flaring Sun, free-free is the dominant emission mechanism with the exception of regions of strong magnetic fields which emit gyroresonance at microwaves. Due to its ubiquitous presence, free-free emission can be used to probe the non-flaring solar atmosphere above temperature minimum. Gyroresonance opacity depends strongly on the magnetic field strength and orientation; hence it provides a unique tool for the estimation of coronal magnetic fields. Gyrosynchrotron is the primary emission mechanism in flares at frequencies higher than 1-2 GHz and depends on the properties of both the magnetic field and the accelerated electrons, as well as the properties of the ambient plasma. In this paper we discuss in detail the above mechanisms and their diagnostic potential.
We present a statistical study on the observed solar radio burst emission associated with the origin of in situ detected solar energetic particles. Several proton event catalogs in the period 1996$-$2016 are used. At the time of appearance of the particle origin (flare and coronal mass ejection) we identified radio burst signatures of types II, III and IV by inspecting dynamic radio spectral plots. The information from observatory reports is also accounted for during the analysis. The occurrence of solar radio burst signatures is evaluated within selected wavelength ranges during the solar cycle 23 and the ongoing 24. Finally, we present the burst occurrence trends with respect to the intensity of the proton events and the location of their solar origin.
The observed properties (i.e., source size, source position, time duration, decay time) of solar radio emission produced through plasma processes near the local plasma frequency, and hence the interpretation of solar radio bursts, are strongly influenced by propagation effects in the inhomogeneous turbulent solar corona. In this work, a 3D stochastic description of the propagation process is presented, based on the Fokker-Planck and Langevin equations of radio-wave transport in a medium containing anisotropic electron density fluctuations. Using a numerical treatment based on this model, we investigate the characteristic source sizes and burst decay times for Type III solar radio bursts. Comparison of the simulations with the observations of solar radio bursts shows that predominantly perpendicular density fluctuations in the solar corona are required, with an anisotropy factor $sim 0.3$ for sources observed at around 30~MHz. The simulations also demonstrate that the photons are isotropized near the region of primary emission, but the waves are then focused by large-scale refraction, leading to plasma radio emission directivity that is characterized by a half-width-half-maximum of about 40~degrees near 30~MHz. The results are applicable to various solar radio bursts produced via plasma emission.
On November 4th 2015 secondary air traffic control radar was strongly disturbed in Sweden and some other European countries. The disturbances occurred when the radar antennas were pointing at the Sun. In this paper, we show that the disturbances coincided with the time of peaks of an exceptionally strong ($sim 10^5$ Solar Flux Units) solar radio burst in a relatively narrow frequency range around 1~GHz. This indicates that this radio burst is the most probable space weather candidate for explaining the radar disturbances. The dynamic radio spectrum shows that the high flux densities are not due to synchrotron emission of energetic electrons, but to coherent emission processes, which produce a large variety of rapidly varying short bursts (such as pulsations, fiber bursts, and zebra patterns). The radio burst occurs outside the impulsive phase of the associated flare, about 30 minutes after the soft X-ray peak, and it is temporarily associated with fast evolving activity occurring in strong solar magnetic fields. While the relationship with strong magnetic fields and the coherent spectral nature of the radio burst provide hints towards the physical processes which generate such disturbances, we have so far no means to forecast them. Well-calibrated monitoring instruments of whole Sun radio fluxes covering the UHF band could at least provide a real-time identification of the origin of such disturbances, which reports in the literature show to also affect GPS signal reception.
Recent SECCHI COR2 observations on board STEREO-A spacecraft have detected density structures at a distance of 2.5--15~R propagating with periodicity of about 90~minutes. The observations show that the density structures probably formed in the lower corona. We used the large Ukrainian radio telescope URAN-2 to observe type IV radio bursts in the frequency range of 8--32~MHz during the time interval of 08:15--11:00~UT on August 1, 2011. Radio emission in this frequency range originated at the distance of 1.5--2.5 R according to the Baumbach-Allen density model of the solar corona. Morlet wavelet analysis showed the periodicity of 80~min in radio emission intensity at all frequencies, which demonstrates that there are quasi-periodic variations of coronal density at all heights. The observed periodicity corresponds to the acoustic cut-off frequency of stratified corona at a temperature of 1~MK. We suggest that continuous perturbations of the coronal base in the form of jets/explosive events generate acoustic pulses, which propagate upwards and leave the wake behind oscillating at the coronal cut-off frequency. This wake may transform into recurrent shocks due to the density decrease with height, which leads to the observed periodicity in the radio emission. The recurrent shocks may trigger quasi-periodic magnetic reconnection in helmet streamers, where the opposite field lines merge and consequently may generate periodic density structures observed in the solar wind.
In this work, we simulate the evolution of the solar wind along its main sequence lifetime and compute its thermal radio emission. To study the evolution of the solar wind, we use a sample of solar mass stars at different ages. All these stars have observationally-reconstructed magnetic maps, which are incorporated in our 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of their winds. We show that angular-momentum loss and mass-loss rates decrease steadily on evolutionary timescales, although they can vary in a magnetic cycle timescale. Stellar winds are known to emit radiation in the form of thermal bremsstrahlung in the radio spectrum. To calculate the expected radio fluxes from these winds, we solve the radiative transfer equation numerically from first principles. We compute continuum spectra across the frequency range 100 MHz - 100 GHz and find maximum radio flux densities ranging from 0.05 - 8.3 $mu$Jy. At a frequency of 1 GHz and a normalised distance of d = 10 pc, the radio flux density follows 0.24 $(Omega/Omega_{odot})^{0.9}$ (d/[10pc])$^2$ $mu$Jy, where $Omega$ is the rotation rate. This means that the best candidates for stellar wind observations in the radio regime are faster rotators within distances of 10 pc, such as $kappa^1$ Ceti (2.83 $mu$Jy) and $chi^1$ Ori (8.3 $mu$Jy). These flux predictions provide a guide to observing solar-type stars across the frequency range 0.1 - 100 GHz in the future using the next generation of radio telescopes, such as ngVLA and SKA.