Solar imaging capabilities of the Brazilian Decimetric Array

Abstract

In collaboration with the Department of Physics at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSC), the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), and the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM) efforts are made to develop solar tomography using solar images obtained at various wavelengths from different observatories, in particular radio images, in order to predict occurrences of solar disturbances and related solar terrestrial and space weather effects. It is suggested that decimetric emission occurs near the solar regions where particles are accelerated or flare energy is released. However, no solar radioheliograph with sufficient time and spatial resolution at decimetric wavelengths has been built so far. In this paper, we describe the imaging capabilities of a T-shaped wideband solar heliograph operating at 1.2 - 1.7 GHz which is capable of obtaining solar disk images at 100 ms time resolution and angular resolution of ~4 arcminutes. With future hardware upgrades the final angular resolution will be 18 × 24 arcseconds which is comparable to X-ray images obtained with the YOHKOH satellite or radio images of the Nobeyama millimeter radioheliograph.

Keywords

• Sun
• solar imaging
• radio waves