Propagation Effects in Quiet Sun Observations at Meter Wavelengths

TL;DR

This study investigates how propagation effects like refraction and scattering modify quiet sun meterwave emissions, revealing significant scattering and size increases, which impact coronal diagnostics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed characterization of propagation effects on quiet sun meterwave observations using MWA data and modeling comparisons.

Findings

Observed radio size of the Sun is 25-30% larger in area.

Emission peak shifts by 8'-11' and increases in size by 35-40%.

Scattered flux density exceeds a few tens of percent, with density inhomogeneities of 1-10%.

Abstract

Quiet sun meterwave emission arises from thermal bremsstrahlung in the MK corona, and can potentially be a rich source of coronal diagnostics. On its way to the observer, it gets modified substantially due to the propagation effects - primarily refraction and scattering - through the magnetized and turbulent coronal medium, leading to the redistribution of the intensity in the image plane. By comparing the full-disk meterwave solar maps during a quiet solar period and the modelled thermal bremsstrahlung emission, we characterise these propagation effects. The solar radio maps between 100 and 240 MHz come from the Murchison Widefield Array. FORWARD package is used to simulate thermal bremsstrahlung images using the self-consistent Magnetohydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere coronal model. The FORWARD model does not include propagation effects. The differences between the observed and modelled maps are interpreted to arise due to scattering and refraction. There is a good general correspondence between the predicted and observed brightness distributions, though significant differences are also observed. We find clear evidence for the presence of significant propagation effects, including anisotropic scattering. The observed radio size of the Sun is 25--30\% larger in area. The emission peak corresponding to the only visible active region shifts by 8'--11' and its size increases by 35--40\%. Our simple models suggest that the fraction of scattered flux density is always larger than a few tens of percent, and varies significantly between different regions. We estimate density inhomogeneities to be in the range 1--10\%.