Type III solar radio burst storms observed at low frequencies

Abstract

Storms of type III solar radio bursts observed from 5.4 to 0.2 MHz, indicate the quasicontinuous production of type III events observable for a half solar rotation but persisting in some cases for well over a complete rotation. The characteristics of these storms, including the dependance of occurrence and apparent drift rates on the disc position of the associated active region are discussed. The drift rate dependance is shown to be a consequence of the propagation time of emission from the source to the observer. The occurrence rate of a burst every 10 sec observed near CMP implies that if this level of activity persists, then about a quarter of a million exciter packets are released into the interplanetary plasma during a complete rotation. Storm bursts are less intense than most isolated type III's and occur over a more limited frequency range. There appears to be a very close relation between these storms and decametric continuum.