The Korean Solar Radio Burst Locator (KSRBL)

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper describes the design and operation of the Korean Solar Radio Burst Locator (KSRBL). The KSRBL is a radio spectrometer designed to observe solar decimeter and microwave bursts over a wide band (0.245–18 GHz) as well as to detect the burst locations without interferometry or mechanical sweeping. As a prototype, it is temporarily observing at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO), California, USA, and after commissioning will be operated at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Daejeon, Republic of Korea. The control system can agilely choose four 500 MHz intermediate frequency (IF) bands (2 GHz instantaneous bandwidth) from the entire 0.245–18 GHz band, with a standard time resolution of 100 ms, although higher time resolution is possible subject to data-rate constraints. To cover the entire band requires 10 tunings, which are therefore completed in 1 s. Each 500 MHz band is sampled at a 1 GS s-1 (gigasample per second) rate, and 4096 time samples are Fast Fourier transformed (FFT) to 2048 subchannels for a frequency resolution of 0.24 MHz. To cover the entire range also requires two different feeds, a dual-frequency Yagi centered at 245 and 410 MHz, and a broadband spiral feed covering 0.5–18 GHz. The dynamic range is 35 dB over the 0.5–18 GHz band, and 55 dB in the 245 and 410 MHz bands, set by using switchable attenuators in steps of 5 dB. Each 500 MHz IF has a further 63 dB of settable analog attenuation. The characteristics of the spiral feed provide the ability to locate flaring sources on the Sun to typically 2′. The KSRBL will provide a broadband view of solar bursts for the purposes of studying solar activity for basic research, and for monitoring solar activity as the source of Space Weather and solar-terrestrial effects.