Radio observation of the solar eclipse of May 20, 1966

Abstract

The eclipse of May 20, 1966 was observed at the wavelengths of 3.2 and 9.1 cm by three Arcetri expeditions. The curves obtained by deriving the occultation curves have been filtered by digital techniques to cut off high frequency noise; by them, many characteristics of three sources of the S-component present on the disk have been studied: temperature, dimensions, emitted flux and brightness distribution. Isophotes of the latter are compared with isophotes of the corresponding Hα plages for two sources: a close similarity results for one of them. Moreover it is shown that: (a) the height above the photosphere of the sources at λ = 9.1 cm is greater than that of the sources at λ = 3.2 cm; (b) the maximum of the radio emission is not always placed exactly above a sunspot or above the sunspot group barycentre. Fitting the observed brightness temperatures, as frequency functions, by a power law and using a temperature model of an active region, the electron density distribution can be deduced. The obtained electron density distributions are compared with various models of active regions.