Abstract
The radio astronomy group in the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has been carrying out routine observations of radio emission from the solar corona at low frequencies (≈40 – 440 MHz) at the Gauribidanur observatory, about 100 km north of Bangalore. Since IIA has been performing regular observations of the solar photosphere and chromosphere using different optical telescopes in its Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (KSO) also (see https://www.iiap.res.in/kodai.htm), the possibilities of obtaining two-dimensional radio images of the solar chromosphere using low-cost instrumentation to supplement the optical observations are being explored. As a part of the exercise, recently the group had developed prototype instrumentation for interferometric observations of radio emission from the solar chromosphere at high frequencies (≈11.2 GHz) using two commercial dish TV antennas. The hardware set-up and initial observations are presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
See DOI.
References
Benz, A.O., Monstein, C., Meyer, H., Manoharan, P.K., Ramesh, R., Altyntsev, A., Lara, A., Paez, J., Cho, K.-S.: 2009, A World-Wide Net of solar radio spectrometers: e-CALLISTO. Earth Moon Planets 104, 277. DOI. ADS.
Borovik, V.N.: 1980, RATAN-600 measurements of the 2 cm – 4 cm radio brightness distribution over the disk of the quiet Sun. Sov. Astron. Lett. 6, 236. DOI. ADS.
Covington, A.E.: 1947, MicroWave solar noise observations during the partial eclipse of November 23, 1946. Nature 159, 405. DOI. ADS.
Fürst, E., Hirth, W., Lantos, P.: 1979, The radius of the Sun at centimeter waves and the brightness distribution across the disk. Solar Phys. 63, 253. DOI. ADS.
Grechnev, V.V., Lesovoi, S.V., Smolkov, G.Y., Krissinel, G.B., Zandanov, V.G., et al.: 2003, The Siberian Solar Radio Telescope: the current state of the instrument, observations, and data. Solar Phys. 216, 239. DOI. ADS.
Iwai, K., Shimojo, M., Asayama, S., Minamidani, T., White, S.M., Bastian, T.S., Saito, M.: 2017, The brightness temperature of the quiet solar chromosphere at 2.6 mm. Solar Phys. 292, 22. DOI. ADS.
Kathiravan, C., Ramesh, R., Nataraj, H.S.: 2007, The post-coronal mass ejection solar atmosphere and radio noise storm activity. Astrophys. J. Lett. 656, L37. DOI. ADS.
Kathiravan, C., Ramesh, R., Subramanian, K.R.: 2002, Metric radio observations and ray-tracing analysis of the onset phase of a solar eruptive event. Astrophys. J. Lett. 567, L93. DOI. ADS.
Kathiravan, C., Ramesh, R., Barve, I.V., Rajalingam, M.: 2011, Radio observations of the solar corona during an eclipse. Astrophys. J. 730, 91. DOI. ADS.
Kraus, J.D.: 1986, Radio Astronomy, 2nd edn., Cygnus-Quasar, Ohio.
Krüger, A., Hildebrandt, J., Bogod, V.M., Korzhavin, A.M., Ahmedov, S.B., Gelfreikh, G.B.: 1986, A study of RATAN-600 observations of solar S-component sources. Solar Phys. 105, 111. DOI. ADS.
Kumari, A., Morosan, D.E., Kilpua, E.K.J.: 2021, On the occurrence of type IV solar radio bursts in Solar Cycle 24 and their association with coronal mass ejections. Astrophys. J. 906, 79. DOI. ADS.
Lantos, P., Avignon, Y.: 1975, The metric quiet Sun during two cycles of activity and the nature of the coronal holes. Astron. Astrophys. 41, 137. ADS.
Leblanc, Y., Le Squeren, A.M.: 1969, Dimensions, temperature and electron density of the quiet corona. Astron. Astrophys. 1, 239. ADS.
Lemen, J.R., Title, A.M., Akin, D.J., Boerner, P.F., Chou, C., et al.: 2012, The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Solar Phys. 272, 17. DOI. ADS.
Linsky, J.L.: 1973, A recalibration of the quiet Sun millimeter spectrum based on the Moon as an absolute radiometric standard. Solar Phys. 28, 409. DOI. ADS.
Mayfield, E.B., Chapman, G.A., Straka, R.M.: 1971, Eclipse of radio emission on 7 March, 1970 at 10 cm wavelength from the active region associated with McMath plage 10618. Solar Phys. 21, 460. DOI. ADS.
Mercier, C., Chambe, G.: 2015, Electron density and temperature in the solar corona from multifrequency radio imaging. Astron. Astrophys. 583, A101. DOI. ADS.
Nakajima, H., Nishio, M., Enome, S., Shibasaki, K., Takano, T., et al.: 1994, The Nobeyama radioheliograph. Proc. IEEE 82, 705. ADS.
Nita, G.M., Hickish, J., MacMahon, D., Gary, D.E.: 2016, EOVSA implementation of a spectral kurtosis correlator for transient detection and classification. J. Astron. Instrum. 5, 1641009. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R.: 2011, Low frequency solar radio astronomy at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA). In: Choudhuri, A.R., Banerjee, D. (eds.) First Asia-Pacific Solar Physics Meeting, Astron. Soc. India: Conf. Ser. 2, 55.
Ramesh, R., Ebenezer, E.: 2001, Decameter wavelength observations of an absorption burst from the Sun and its association with an X2.0/3B flare and the onset of a ‘Halo’ coronal mass ejection. Astrophys. J. Lett. 558, L141. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Shanmugha Sundaram, G.A.: 2000, Type I radio bursts and the minimum between sunspot cycles 22 & 23. Astron. Astrophys. 364, 873. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Subramanian, K.R., Sastry, C.V.: 1999, Eclipse observations of compact sources in the outer solar corona. Solar Phys. 185, 77. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Sundara Rajan, M.S., Sastry, C.V.: 2006, The 1024 channel digital correlator receiver of the Gauribidanur radioheliograph. Exp. Astron. 21, 31. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Subramanian, K.R., Sundara Rajan, M.S., Sastry, C.V.: 1998, The Gauribidanur radioheliograph. Solar Phys. 181, 439. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Nataraj, H.S., Kathiravan, C., Sastry, C.V.: 2006, The equatorial background solar corona during solar minimum. Astrophys. J. 648, 707. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Kathiravan, C., Barve, I.V., Rajalingam, M.: 2012a, High angular resolution radio observations of a coronal mass ejection source region at low frequencies during a solar eclipse. Astrophys. J. 744, 165. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Kathiravan, C., Anna Lakshmi, M., Gopalswamy, N., Umapathy, S.: 2012b, The location of solar metric type II radio bursts with respect to the associated coronal mass ejections. Astrophys. J. 752, 107. DOI. ADS.
Ramesh, R., Kathiravan, C., Sundara Rajan, M.S., Barve, I.V., Rajalingam, M.: 2014, Solar observations at low frequencies with the Gauribidanur radioheliograph. In: Chengalur, J.N., Gupta, Y. (eds.) The Metrewavelength Sky, Astron. Soc. of India: Conf. Ser. 13, 19.
Ramesh, R., Kumari, A., Kathiravan, C., Ketaki, D., Rajesh, M., Vrunda, M.: 2020, Low-frequency radio observations of the quiet corona during the descending phase of sunspot cycle 24. Geophys. Res. Lett. 47, e90426. DOI. ADS.
Saint-Hilaire, P., Vilmer, N., Kerdraon, A.: 2013, A decade of solar type III radio bursts observed by the Nancay radioheliograph 1998 – 2008. Astrophys. J. 762, 60. DOI. ADS.
Sasikumar Raja, K., Ramesh, R., Hariharan, K., Kathiravan, C., Wang, T.J.: 2014, An estimate of the magnetic field strength associated with a solar coronal mass ejection from low frequency radio observations. Astrophys. J. 796, 56. DOI. ADS.
Sastry, C.V.: 1995, The decameter and meter wave radiotelescopes in India and Mauritius. Space Sci. Rev. 72, 629. DOI. ADS.
Selhorst, C.L., Giménez De Castro, C.G., Válio, A., Costa, J.E.R., Shibasaki, K.: 2011, The behavior of the 17 GHz solar radius and limb brightening in the spotless minimum XXIII/XXIV. Astrophys. J. 734, 64. DOI. ADS.
Shibasaki, K.: 2013, Long-term global solar activity observed by the Nobeyama radioheliograph. Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan 65, S17. DOI. ADS.
Tanaka, H., Castelli, J.P., Covington, A.E., Krüger, A., Landecker, T.L., Tlamicha, A.: 1973, Absolute calibration of solar radio flux density in the microwave region. Solar Phys. 29, 243. DOI. ADS.
Tapping, K.F.: 2013, The 10.7 cm solar radio flux (\(\text{F}_{10.7}\)). Space Weather 11, 394. DOI. ADS.
Thompson, A.R., Moran, J.M., Swenson, G.W. Jr.: 2004, Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy, 2nd edn., Wiley, Weinheim.
Yan, Y., Chen, Z., Wang, W., Liu, F., Geng, L., Chen, L., Tan, C., Chen, X., Su, C., Tan, B.: 2021, Mingantu spectral radioheliograph for solar and space weather studies. Front. Astron. Space Sci. 8, 20. DOI. ADS.
Zirin, H., Baumert, B.M., Hurford, G.: 1991, The microwave brightness temperature spectrum of the quiet Sun. Astrophys. J. 370, 779. DOI. ADS.
Acknowledgements
We express our gratitude to the staff of the Gauribidanur observatory for their help in setting up the antenna/receiver systems, and carrying out the observations. The SDO/AIA data are courtesy of the NASA/SDO and the AIA science teams. We thank the referee for his/her kind comments which helped us to improve the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gireesh, G.V.S., Kathiravan, C., Barve, I.V. et al. Radio Interferometric Observations of the Sun Using Commercial Dish TV Antennas. Sol Phys 296, 121 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-021-01871-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-021-01871-9