Radio emission from solar flares offers a number of unique diagnostic tools to address long-standing questions about energy release, plasma heating, particle acceleration, and particle transport in magnetized plasmas. At millimeter and centimeter wavelengths, incoherent gyrosynchrotron emission from electrons with energies of tens of kilo electron volts to several mega electron volts plays a dominant role. These electrons carry a significant fraction of the energy released during the impulsive phase of flares. At decimeter and meter wavelengths, coherent plasma radiation can play a dominant role. Particularly important are type III and type III‐like radio bursts, which are due to upward- and downwarddirected beams of nonthermal electrons, presumed to originate in the energy release site. With the launch of Yohkohand the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory , the relationship between radio emission and energetic photon emissions has been clarified. In this review, recent progress on our understanding of radio emission from impulsive flares and its relation to X-ray emission is discussed, as well as energy release in flare-like phenomena (microflares, nanoflares) and their bearing on coronal heating.

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Radio emission from solar flares

▪ Abstract Radio astronomy has provided evidence for the presence of ionized atmospheres around almost all classes of nondegenerate stars. Magnetically confined coronae dominate in the cool half of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Their radio emission is predominantly of nonthermal origin and has been identified as gyrosynchrotron radiation from mildly relativistic electrons, apart from some coherent emission mechanisms. Ionized winds are found in hot stars and in red giants. They are detected through their thermal, optically thick radiation, but synchrotron emission has been found in many systems as well. The latter is emitted presumably by shock-accelerated electrons in weak magnetic fields in the outer wind regions. Radio emission is also frequently detected in pre–main sequence stars and protostars and has recently been discovered in brown dwarfs. This review summarizes the radio view of the atmospheres of nondegenerate stars, focusing on energy release physics in cool coronal stars, wind phenomenolog...

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Stellar Radio Astronomy: Probing Stellar Atmospheres from Protostars to Giants

The three-dimensional structure of solar active region NOAA 7986 observed on 1996 August 30 with the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is analyzed. We develop a new method of dynamic stereoscopy to reconstruct the three-dimensional geometry of dynamically changing loops, which allows us to determine the orientation of the mean loop plane with respect to the line of sight, a prerequisite to correct properly for projection effects in three-dimensional loop models. With this method and the filter-ratio technique applied to EIT 171 and 195 A images we determine the three-dimensional coordinates [x(s), y(s), z(s)], the loop width w(s), the electron density ne(s), and the electron temperature Te(s) as a function of the loop length s for 30 loop segments. Fitting the loop densities with an exponential density model ne(h) we find that the mean of inferred scale height temperatures, Tλe=1.22 ± 0.23 MK, matches closely that of EIT filter-ratio temperatures, TEITe=1.21 ± 0.06 MK. We conclude that these cool and rather large-scale loops (with heights of h≈30-225 Mm) are in hydrostatic equilibrium. Most of the loops show no significant thickness variation w(s), but we measure for most of them a positive temperature gradient (dT/ds>0) across the first scale height above the footpoint. Based on these temperature gradients we find that the conductive loss rate is about 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the radiative loss rate, which is in strong contrast to hot active region loops seen in soft X-rays. We infer a mean radiative loss time of τrad≈40 minutes at the loop base. Because thermal conduction is negligible in these cool EUV loops, they are not in steady state, and radiative loss has entirely to be balanced by the heating function. A statistical heating model with recurrent heating events distributed along the entire loop can explain the observed temperature gradients if the mean recurrence time is 10 minutes. We computed also a potential field model (from SOHO/MDI magnetograms) and found a reasonable match with the traced EIT loops. With the magnetic field model we determined also the height dependence of the magnetic field B(h), the plasma parameter β(h), and the Alfven velocity vA(h). No correlation was found between the heating rate requirement EH0 and the magnetic field Bfoot at the loop footpoints.

Three-dimensional Stereoscopic Analysis of Solar Active Region Loops. I. SOHO/EIT Observations at Temperatures of (1.0-1.5) × 106 K

Recent hard X-ray observations of solar flares are reviewed with emphasis on results obtained with instruments on the Solar Maximum Mission satellite. Flares with three different sets of characteristics, designated as Type A, Type B, and Type C, are discussed and hard X-ray temporal, spatial, spectral, and polarization measurements are reviewed in this framework. Coincident observations are reviewed at other wavelengths including the UV, microwaves, and soft X-rays, with discussions of their interpretations. In conclusion, a brief outline is presented of the potential of future hard X-ray observations with sub-second time resolution, arcsecond spatial resolution, and keV energy resolution, and polarization measurements at the few percent level up to 100 keV.

Solar Flare Hard X-Ray Observations

The prospects for observational tests of coronal heating theories are examined. Three heating mechanisms (Alfvén waves, D.C. electric currents, and MHD turbulence) are reviewed from this point of view. Some suggestions are offered for future tests but none, so far, would give unambiguous critical results.

Coronal heating: Invited review paper

Simultaneous VLA observations of microwave bursts at 6 and 2 cm in a solar active region are presented and discussed. Using the full-day synthesis, I and V maps of the active region are produced. The radiation mechanisms at these wavelengths are discussed and the upper and lower bounds on the magnetic field of the active region are derived. The magnetic fields in the microwave burst source are estimated from the brightness temperature and the degree of circular polarization. It is concluded that the 6 cm radiation originates from the bulk heated plasma, whereas the 2 cm radiation is due to the nonthermal particles generated in the energy-release process. The delay between the peaks of emission at the two wavelengths is interpreted using a dc electric field model of flares. Depending on the strength of the electric field and the density in the flaring region, delays in either sense can be observed.

Dual frequency observations of solar microwave bursts using the VLA

Two data sets are analyzed in order to improve understanding of the plasma and magnetic field properties of active region coronal loops. Each set consists of coaligned, high spatial resolution soft X-ray, microwave, and magnetogram images that are used to compare observations of coronal loops and their feet in the photosphere and to constrain possible microwave emission mechanisms. The loops are found to have plasma parameters typical of quiescent active region loops. Each loop has a compact microwave source with peak brightness temperature T(b) = 1-2.5 x 10 to the 6th K cospatial with or near the loop apex. No complete loops are imaged in microwaves. The loop emission observed at 4.9 GHz is best described by fourth harmonic gyroresonance emission from a dipole loop model, but with less field variation along the loop than in the models of Holman and Kundu (1985).

The plasma and magnetic field properties of coronal loops observed at high spatial resolution

The first observations of solar coronal bright points made at 20-cm wavelength with the VLA are reported. The brightness temperature of the sources observed varies between 1 and 5 x 10 to the 5th K. The observations indicate that significant fluctuations in the brightness temperature as well as in the spatial extent of these sources can occur over a few minutes. These fluctuations are shown to be due to density and temperature fluctuations at transition region heights combined with either plasma motions along magnetic field lines or changes in magnetic field topology, or both.

Solar Coronal Bright Points Observed with the VLA

Microwave emission from late-type dwarf stars UV Ceti and YZ Canis Minoris.

Aperture-synthesis observations of YZ CMi at 20 and 90 cm are reported. The data are presented in extensive graphs and contour maps and discussed in detail. From the 90-cm brightness temperature of about 1000 K it is inferred that the emission is coherent. 19 references.

R. K. Shevgaonkar

Papers

Dual frequency observations of solar microwave bursts using the VLA

The plasma and magnetic field properties of coronal loops observed at high spatial resolution

Solar Coronal Bright Points Observed with the VLA

Microwave emission from late-type dwarf stars UV Ceti and YZ Canis Minoris.

Detection of the dMe flare star YZ Canis Minoris simultaneously at 20 and 90 centimeter wavelengths