Investigations of Solar Activity with the Owens Valley Solar Array

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AST 0307670PI: GaryThis project supports the Owens Valley Solar Array (OVSA), the only university-based solar dedicated radio imaging array, through operations support, partial support for the personnel on the site at Owens Valley Radio Observatory (Big Pine, CA), and partial support for graduate student and post-doctoral research with the data. As the only solar-dedicated radio instrument in the United States, continued operation of the instrument, through its unique combination of imaging and spectral coverage, provides quantitative physical measurements of solar particles and magnetic fields in thousands of solar flares.Broader Impacts: The OVSA instrument represents irreplaceable infrastructure for research and education. The OVSA data provide research projects for undergraduate and graduate students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, an urban school, in Newark, NJ, and the students working with the data come from a diverse group. The OVSA facilities provide a testbed for prototyping of antennas, feeds, and signal transmission systems for the new Frequency Agile Solar Radio telescope, highly ranked by two national decadal surveys, conceived to be a national facility, and the world's premiere solar instrument for the next two decades. The OVSA data are available through a web interface to scientists worldwide to add to their studies of the Sun and solar activity. Solar activity can have a direct impact on society through its effects on satellite and communication systems, among others. Results from OVSA are used to bring the excitement of this research to school and community groups, through involvement with the Newark Museum, the Newark Discovery Charter School, and Project Astro NOVA in New Jersey.