Bernd Austermann, Michael Mittelstaedt, Michael Winter
Building on last year's project, the construction and steering of our radio telescope, our new goal is to do solar astronomy. We have calculated the energy and magnetic field change associated with the largest solar storm of 1987 and we demonstrated that the radiation cannot be of thermal origin. We were able to draw conclusions about the origin of solar storms by analysing statistical data (frequency radiation flux spectra). We find that the microwave radiation originates from deep within the corona, which explains frequency changes of the radio storms. We link properties of the frequency radiation flux spectra to their origin in characteristics of the solar plasma (e.g. plasma frequency).
We also study periodic intensity oscillations of the sun and develop a mathematical model that can predict such oscillations on a time scale of minutes to hours. Using our little radio telescope and our own software for Fourier analysis, we attempted to detect solar oscillations on a time scale of about 40 minutes, however, our measurement accuracy was not sufficient. Finally, we investigate the origin of slow solar oscillations and we propose a model based on torque.
