Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T05:23:39.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Theory of Solar Radio Bursts: Can it be understood by the Non-Expert?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

D. B. Melrose*
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of Sydney

Extract

The theory of solar radio bursts remains a mystery to most astronomers and astrophysicists. The reasons for this are not hard to identify. First, the solar radioastronomical data are unfamiliar. (The observational data on solar radio bursts is being reviewed separately at this meeting (McLean 1981).) The important features of this data involve frequency-time structures in dynamic spectra, and such features are absent in data on galactic and extra galactic objects. Even for pulsars the data are obtained at discrete frequencies, and the frequency-time structures are not of major importance. Second, the theory itself involves plasma physical concepts which are unfamiliar to most physicists and astronomers. These concepts include those of plasma instabilities, microturbulence, and of particle-wave and wave-wave interactions. Third, one must also admit that there is a prejudice amongst many astronomers against solar physics: the Sun is regarded as interesting only to the extent that it can teach us about other astronomical objects. I shall return to this third point later.

Type
Invited Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfvén, H., Arkiv. Mat. Astron. Fysik., 29B (2) (1942).Google Scholar
Alvarez, H., Haddock, F. T., and Potter, W. H., Solar Phys., 34, 413 (1974).Google Scholar
Appleton, E. V., J. Inst. Elect. Engrs., 71, 642 (1932).Google Scholar
Åström, E., Arkiv. Fysik., 2, 443 (1950).Google Scholar
Benz, A. O., and Wentzel, D. G., Astron. Astrophys., 94, 100 (1981).Google Scholar
Dulk, G. A., and Suzuki, S., Astron. Astrophys., 88, 203 (1980).Google Scholar
Duncan, R. A., Solar Phys., 63, 389 (1979).Google Scholar
Escande, D. F., and de Genouillac, G. V., Astron. Astrophys. 68, 405 (1978).Google Scholar
Ginzburg, V. L., and Zheleznyakov, V. V., Astron, Zh., 35, 694; Soviet Astron. AJ, 2, 653 (1958).Google Scholar
Grognard, R. J.-M., Aust. J. Phys., 28, 731 (1975).Google Scholar
Hartree, D. R., Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 27, 143 (1931).Google Scholar
Kellogg, P. J., Astrophys. J., 236, 696 (1980).Google Scholar
Kuijpers, J., in ‘ Radiophysks of the Sun ’ (eds: Kundu, M. R. and Gergely, T. E.), D. Reidel, p. 341 (1980).Google Scholar
Landau, L. D., J. Phys. (U.S.S.R.), 10, 25 (1946).Google Scholar
Lin, R. P., Potter, D. W., Gurnett, D. A., and Scarf, F. L., Astrophys. J., (in press 1981).Google Scholar
McConnell, D., Proc. Astron. Soc. Aust., 4, 64 (1980).Google Scholar
McLean, D. J., Proc. Astron. Soc. Aust., 4, (1981).Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., Space Sci. Rev., 26, 3 (1980a).Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., Aust. J. Phys., 33, 121 (1980b).Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., Solar Phys., 67, 357 (1980c).Google Scholar
Melrose, D. B., Dulk, G. A., and Gary, D. E., Proc. Astron. Soc. Aust., 4, 50 (1980).Google Scholar
Riddle, A. C, Proc. Astron. Soc. Aust., 2, 98 (1972).Google Scholar
Roberts, J. A., Aust. J. Phys., 12, 317 (1959).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, J. L., Aubier-Girard, M., Leblanc, Y., and Boischot, A., Astron. Astrophys., 10, 362 (1971).Google Scholar
Stewart, R. T., Solar Phys., 39, 451 (1974).Google Scholar
Suzuki, S., and Gary, D. E., Proc. Astron. Soc. Aust., 3, 379 (1979).Google Scholar
Takakura, T., Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan, 15, 462 (1963).Google Scholar
Tidman, D. A., and Krall, N. A., Shock Waves in Collisionless Plasmas, Wiley-Interscience (New York) (1971).Google Scholar
Tonks, L., and Langmuir, I., Phys. Rev., 33, 195 (1929).Google Scholar
Trakhtengerts, V. Yu., Astron. Zh., 43, 436; Soviet Astron. AJ, 10, 281 (1966).Google Scholar
Wild, J. P., Aust. J. Sci. Res., A3, (1950).Google Scholar
Wild, J. P., in Highlights of Astronomy (ed. Contopoulos, ) D. Reidel p. 3 (1974).Google Scholar
Wild, J. P., and McCready, L. L., Aust. J. Sci. Res., A3, 387 (1950).Google Scholar
Wild, J. P., Murray, J. D., and Rowe, W. C., Aust. J. Phys., 7, 439 (1954).Google Scholar