Anisotropic Radio-Wave Scattering and the Interpretation of Solar Radio Emission Observations

Kontar, Eduard P., Chen, Xingyao, Chrysaphi, Nicolina, Jeffrey, Natasha, Emslie, A. Gordon, Krupar, Vratislav, Maksimovic, Milan, Gordovskyy, Mykola and Browning, Philippa K. (2019) Anisotropic Radio-Wave Scattering and the Interpretation of Solar Radio Emission Observations. The Astrophysical Journal, 884 (2). p. 122. ISSN 0004-637X

Preview	Text Kontar_2019_ApJ_884_122.pdf - Published Version Download (2MB) | Preview
	Text Kontar et al - Anisotropic Radio-Wave Scattering and the Interpretation of Solar Radio Emission Observations AAM.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (4MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

The observed properties (i.e., source size, source position, time duration, decay time) of solar radio emission produced through plasma processes near the local plasma frequency, and hence the interpretation of solar radio bursts, are strongly influenced by propagation effects in the inhomogeneous turbulent solar corona. In this work, a 3D stochastic description of the propagation process is presented, based on the Fokker-Planck and Langevin equations of radio-wave transport in a medium containing anisotropic electron density fluctuations. Using a numerical treatment based on this model, we investigate the characteristic source sizes and burst decay times for Type III solar radio bursts. Comparison of the simulations with the observations of solar radio bursts shows that predominantly perpendicular density fluctuations in the solar corona are required, with an anisotropy factor ~0.3 for sources observed at around 30 MHz. The simulations also demonstrate that the photons are isotropized near the region of primary emission, but the waves are then focused by large-scale refraction, leading to plasma radio emission directivity that is characterized by a half-width-half-maximum of about 40 degrees near 30 MHz. The results are applicable to various solar radio bursts produced via plasma emission.

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads