Imaging Spectroscopy of Coherent Radio Bursts on the Sun: a New Probe of Magnetic Energy Release

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This project will solely support a promising graduate student and form the basis of his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Virginia. The senior proposers will supervise this student in his study of coherent radio bursts as a diagnostic of magnetic energy release in solar flares. Under their guidance, the student will utilize state-of-the-art radio instrumentation to make fundamentally new observations of coherent bursts from flares, in the form of dynamic broadband imaging spectroscopy at decimeter wavelengths. These observations will allow the locations of flare magnetic energy release to be pinpointed, and the temporal and spatial evolution of these locations to be tracked. Depending on the particular type of radio burst, such observations can place constraints on the magnetic field and plasma density in and around the energy release sites of solar flares. The new technique of broadband imaging spectroscopy at radio wavelengths promises to be transformative in solar physics. The proposers will exploit the newly upgraded instrumentation at the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA, a facility of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, or NRAO), as well as the Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope (FASR) Subsystem test bed array and the Owens Valley Solar Array, two university instruments operated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California. This project will directly support the education and training of a promising PhD student and will contribute to the successful commissioning of the EVLA radiotelescope. EVLA is an extraordinary and powerful new instrument that will dramatically enhance existing research infrastructure and transform our capabilities for radio observations of the Sun. EVLA will also support a broad user community and make possible scientific studies that will have direct impact on our understanding of space weather phenomena.