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

这个项目将完全支持一名有前途的研究生，并为他在弗吉尼亚大学的博士论文奠定基础。资深提倡者将指导这名学生研究相干射电爆发，以此作为太阳耀斑中磁能释放的诊断。在他们的指导下，学生将利用最先进的无线电仪器，以分米波长的动态宽带成像光谱学的形式，从根本上对耀斑的相干爆发进行新的观测。这些观测将能够精确定位耀斑磁能释放的位置，并跟踪这些位置的时间和空间演变。根据特定类型的射电爆发，这种观测可以对太阳耀斑能量释放地点及其周围的磁场和等离子体密度施加限制。射电波长宽带成像光谱学的新技术有望对太阳物理学产生革命性影响。建议者将利用扩展的甚大阵列(EVLA，国家射电天文台的设施)上新升级的仪器，以及频率捷变太阳射电望远镜(FAIR)子系统测试台阵和欧文斯谷太阳能阵列，这是新泽西理工学院在加利福尼亚州欧文斯谷射电天文台运行的两台大学仪器。该项目将直接支持对有前途的博士生的教育和培训，并将有助于EVLA射电望远镜的成功调试。EVLA是一种非凡而强大的新仪器，它将极大地增强现有的研究基础设施，并改变我们对太阳的无线电观测能力。EVLA还将支持广泛的用户群体，并使科学研究成为可能，这些研究将对我们对空间气象现象的理解产生直接影响。

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.