Space Weather, Solar Wind Disturbances and Radio Bursts

Description

Solar wind, the stream of electrically charged particles emanating from the outer atmospheric layer corona of Sun, poses threat to life form and electrical technology based modern human society. Earth’s magnetic field provide protection against the incoming solar wind by deflecting them away. Drastic solar events like mass ejection of electrically charged plasma from the corona of Sun creates disturbances in the solar wind. Therefore, study of disturbances in the conditions of solar wind (called Space weather) is an imperative. Coronal Mass Ejection (CMEs), also called ‘solar storms’ or ‘space storms’ is associated with the solar radio bursts. Study of solar radio bursts in the radio observatories can give an idea about CMEs and solar wind conditions. The first statistical study (published recently) of 446 recorded type IV radio bursts observed in the last solar cycle 24 (each cycle refers to the change in Sun’s magnetic field every 11 years), have found that the majority of Long Duration Type IV Radio Solar Bursts were accompanied by Coronal Mass Ejection (CMEs) and disturbances in the solar wind conditions.