Solar Imaging using Low Frequency Arrays

TL;DR

This paper reviews the capabilities of low frequency radio arrays like MWA, LWA, and LOFAR for high-resolution solar imaging, highlighting recent results and future prospects for heliospheric studies.

Contribution

It summarizes current state-of-the-art solar and heliospheric radio imaging using low frequency arrays and discusses future advancements with systems like RAPID.

Findings

High-resolution solar imaging is now feasible with arrays like MWA.

Large fields of view enable simultaneous heliospheric volume studies.

Recent results demonstrate detailed spatial analysis of solar radio bursts.

Abstract

Low frequency imaging radio arrays such as MWA, LWA and LOFAR have been recently commissioned, and significantly more advanced and flexible arrays are planned for the near term. These powerful instruments offer new opportunities for direct solar imaging at high time and frequency resolution. They can also probe large volumes of the heliosphere simultaneously, by virtue of very large fields of view. They allow highly detailed, spatially resolved study of solar and heliospheric radio bursts, which are complemented by heliospheric propagation studies using both background astronomical radio emissions as well as the bursts themselves. In this paper, the state of the art in such wide field solar and heliospheric radio studies is summarized, including recent results from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The prospects for major advances in observational capabilities in the near future are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the RAPID system developed at Haystack Observatory