Observation and Modeling of Small Spatial Structures of Solar Radio Noise Storms using the uGMRT

TL;DR

This study uses upgraded radio telescope data to observe very small-scale solar noise storm structures, revealing their stability and suggesting environmental factors influence their detectability, thus constraining coronal plasma models.

Contribution

First observational detection of tiny, stable solar noise storm structures using uGMRT data, providing new constraints on coronal turbulence and plasma emission models.

Findings

Detected small-scale structures in solar noise storms.

Structures are stable over 15-30 minutes.

Proposed conditions to lower the theoretical minimum source size.

Abstract

One of the most commonly observed solar radio sources in the metric and decametric wavelengths is the solar noise storm. These are generally associated with active regions and are believed to be powered by the plasma emission mechanism. Since plasma emission emits primarily at the fundamental and harmonic of the local plasma frequency, it is significantly affected by density inhomogeneities in the solar corona. The source can become significantly scatter-broadened due to the multi-path propagation caused by refraction from the density inhomogeneities. Past observational and theoretical estimates suggest some minimum observable source size in the solar corona. The details of this limit, however, depends on the modeling approach and details of the coronal turbulence model chosen. Hence pushing the minimum observable source size to smaller values can help constrain the plasma environment of the observed sources. In this work, we for the first time, use data from the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in the 250--500 MHz band, to determine multiple instances of very small-scale structures in the noise storms. We also find that these structures are stable over timescales of 15--30 minutes. By comparing the past observations of Type III radio bursts and noise storms, we hypothesize that the primary reason behind the detection of these small sources in noise storm is due to the local environment of the noise storm. We also build an illustrative model and propose some conditions under which the minimum observable source size predicted by theoretical models, can be lowered significantly.