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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2016
We observed the continuum emission from the radio sun when there is no burst activity at λ = 8.7 m with the large decameter wave radio telescope at Gauribidanur (Latitude 13° 36‘ 12“ N and 77° 27‘ 07“ E) with a resolution of 26'/40'. A compound grating interferometer with one dimensional resolution of 3' is also used. These observations are made during August 1983 and June 1986. The brightness temperature at the center of the sun varied from 0.2 106 K to 0.8 106 K during these periods on time scales of several hours to a day. Since the sun is absolutely quiet during these periods we believe that the radiation is purely thermal in nature. In this case the observed brightness temperature variations imply large scale density variations by more than a factor of three if the corona is optically thin at these wavelengths. Alternatively if the corona is optically thick the observations imply real electron temperature variations with or without accompanying density variations.