A Review of Recent Solar Type III Imaging Spectroscopy

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.