Speaker
Description
The SunDish project is devoted to radio imaging and monitoring of the solar atmosphere at high radio frequencies (at present 18-26 GHz, up to 100 GHz in perspective) through single-dish observations with INAF radio telescopes.
Observations of the brightness temperature of the solar atmosphere in the radio band can map plasma processes that produce free-free emission in the local thermodynamic equilibrium and gyromagnetic phenomena, providing a probe of physical conditions in a wide range of atmospheric layers both for quiet and active regions.
During the development and early science phase of the project (2018-2020), we obtained about 170 maps of the entire solar disk in the 18-26 GHz band, filling the observational gap in the field of chromospheric imaging at these frequencies.
In order to ease the multi-wavelength exploitation of our data products, we present a first catalogue of continuum imaging observations including the multi-wavelength identification of active regions and their brightness and spectral characterization.
Through systematic monitoring of the Sun, our system can provide: (1) accurate measurement of the brightness temperature of the radio-quiet Sun component, that has been poorly explored in the 20-26 GHz range to date; (2) characterization of the flux density, spectral properties and long-term evolution of dynamical features (active regions, coronal holes, loop systems, streamers, and the coronal plateau); (3) prediction of powerful flares through the detection of peculiar spectral variations in the active regions, as a valuable forecasting probe for the Space Weather hazard network.
