Solar Imaging using Low Frequency Arrays

Abstract: Low frequency imaging radio arrays such as MWA, LWA and LOFAR have been recently commissioned, and significantly more advanced and flexible arrays are planned for the near term. These powerful instruments offer new opportunities for direct solar imaging at high time and frequency resolution. They can also probe large volumes of the heliosphere simultaneously, by virtue of very large fields of view. They allow highly detailed, spatially resolved study of solar and heliospheric radio bursts, which are complemented by heliospheric propagation studies using both background astronomical radio emissions as well as the bursts themselves. In this paper, the state of the art in such wide field solar and heliospheric radio studies is summarized, including recent results from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The prospects for major advances in observational capabilities in the near future are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the RAPID system developed at Haystack Observatory