A New 6–15 GHz Solar Radio Observation System

Abstract

In this study, we have developed a centimeter-band solar radio telescope covering the 6–15 GHz frequency band. The radio telescope has the outstanding advantages of a large instantaneous sampling bandwidth and wide frequency coverage. As a new solar radio telescope, its time resolution reaches a very high level of 0.26 ms at a frequency resolution of 3 MHz, which is very conducive to observing the fine structure of radio burst signals. In terms of the structure design, the system employs a 3 m diameter parabolic antenna to receive solar radio signals. The antenna has high gain and good directivity, and the pointing accuracy reaches 0.°02, which ensures the ability to accurately track the Sun in real time. In the analog signal processing module, the combination of radio frequency direct acquisition and down conversion is used to reduce the interference caused by multiple spectrum shifts. Regarding the digital receiver, a digital receiving module with high sampling rate and acquisition resolution is used for data acquisition and processing, which ensures that the observation system can obtain observation data with high time and frequency resolutions and real-time data processing. During the trial operation of the system, solar radio bursts have been observed many times, and these observations have been supported by similar international observation equipment. According to a data comparison, the data obtained by our observation system are more precise. At present, equipment calibration methods are being improved and constructed to obtain more accurate observation data.

Keywords

• Solar radio telescopes
• Flux calibration