Abstract
Solar type III radio bursts are the most common impulsive radio signatures from the Sun, stimulated by electron beams travelling through the solar corona and solar wind. Type III burst analysis provides us with a powerful remote sensing diagnostic tool for both the electron beams and the plasma they travel through. Advanced radio telescopes like the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR), the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) are now giving us type III imaging spectroscopy with orders of magnitude better resolution than before. In this review, the recent observational progress provided by the new observations is discussed, including how this enhanced resolution has facilitated study of type III burst fine structure. The new results require more detailed theoretical understanding of how type III bursts are produced. Consequently, recent numerical work is discussed which improves our understanding of how electron beams, Langmuir waves and radio waves evolve through the turbulent solar system plasma. Looking towards the future, some theoretical challenges are discussed that we need to overcome on our quest to understand type III bursts and the electron beams that drive them.
Highlights
Type III radio bursts are the most common coherent radio emission produced by the Sun
We are dependent upon Earth-based telescopes to provide type III imaging, which we obtain above the 10 MHz ionospheric cut-off
The same conclusion was obtained by Zhang et al (2019) who used LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) imaging spectroscopy to analyse one radio burst
Summary
Reviewed by: Rohit Sharma, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland Pierre Henri, UMR7328 Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l’environnement et de l’Espace (LPC2E), France. Type III burst analysis provides us with a powerful remote sensing diagnostic tool for both the electron beams and the plasma they travel through. The recent observational progress provided by the new observations is discussed for type III bursts at GHz and MHz frequencies, including how this enhanced resolution has facilitated study of type III burst fine structure. Recent numerical work is discussed which improves our understanding of how electron beams, Langmuir waves and radio waves evolve through the turbulent solar system plasma. Some theoretical challenges are discussed that we need to overcome on our quest to understand type III bursts and the electron beams that drive them
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