Observations of Low Frequency Solar Radio Bursts from the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory

TL;DR

The paper details the setup and initial observations of solar radio bursts at the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory, highlighting fine-scale structures in Type II bursts and the observatory's capabilities in low-frequency solar radio research.

Contribution

It introduces the RSTO setup with CALLISTO spectrometers and presents new observations of fine-scale structures in solar radio bursts.

Findings

Detection of fine-scale structures in Type II bursts

Observation of band splitting and herringbone features

Capability to observe in 10-870 MHz range

Abstract

The Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory (RSTO; www.rosseobservatory.ie) was established at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly, Ireland (53 05'38.9", 7 55'12.7") in 2010 to study solar radio bursts and the response of the Earth's ionosphere and geomagnetic field. To date, three Compound Astronomical Low-cost Low-frequency Instrument for Spectroscopy and Transportable Observatory (CALLISTO) spectrometers have been installed, with the capability of observing in the frequency range 10-870 MHz. The receivers are fed simultaneously by biconical and log-periodic antennas. Nominally, frequency spectra in the range 10-400 MHz are obtained with 4 sweeps per second over 600 channels. Here, we describe the RSTO solar radio spectrometer set-up, and present dynamic spectra of a sample of Type II, III and IV radio bursts. In particular, we describe fine-scale structure observed in Type II bursts, including band splitting and rapidly varying herringbone features.