Radio Jove Observations of the Sun

Mary Lou West (Montclair State University, NJ)


A poster (22.07) presented at the American Astronomical Society Meeting #199 in Washington, DC, January, 2002

The Radio Jove receiver kit was assembled and soldered by three undergraduates, following explicit instructions in the manual. The antenna was set up on the grass quad for testing and then installed permanently on the roof of Science Hall. Unfortunately, this is close to high tension transmission lines and other radio noise sources. Routine observations have snared a few solar events, about 33% of those in our observing times.

The receiver being tested. The antenna being set up temporarily on the grass quad for testing. The antenna installed on the roof of Science Hall.

Equipment:

An example of a strong solar radio burst (RBR) and radio spectrograph (RSP) on August 25, 2001:
The background is about calibration level 3, about 95,000 kelvins, not very quiet.

On another day (August 2, 2001) a solar burst was detected at Montclair State University in New Jersey and at the same time by Dick Flagg at Windward Community College in Hawaii.

There are sources of confusion in the radio signal, but many can be eliminated by using earphones. Here are examples of man-made interference, a radio station drifting in frequency, and distant lightning strikes.

Correlations:
We tabulated the radio burst events reported by SEC from satellites during the times we were observing with the Radio Jove system. In nearly 60 hours of observation from July to December, 2001 we detected 33% of these events, and also found:

Strategy:
We will use the Sunspotter (quick and easy in the morning) to look for large sunspots on the east side of the sun, then do radio observations at lunchtime.

Conclusions:

Future plans:

Useful Resources:

The Radio Jove flyer from Goddard SpaceFlight Center:


This page is http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~west/radiojoveposter.html
AAS Meeting 199 in Washington, DC January, 2002
west@pegasus.montclair.edu