Physics

Dr R Ramesh
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore

Abstract:

The Sun and its atmosphere can be broadly classified into three regions: the photosphere, the chromosphere and the corona. While it is possible to observe the photosphere and the chromosphere in the visible band of the electromagnetic spectrum, presently only the corona beyond a height of ~ 1 solar radii above the surface of the Sun can be observed in the visible band with coronagraphs from space platforms. Ground based coronagraph observations, though possible at heights less than 1 solar radii, are affected by scattering by dust particles in the Earth's atmosphere. The other limitation with the coronagraph observations is that only the corona that lies off the limb of the Sun can be observed. The corona that overlies the visible disk of the Sun is obscured by the occulting disk of the corongraph. In my talk I will discuss the usefulness of ground based low frequency radio observations of the solar corona in this regard.