REAL TIME HIGH SENSITIVITY DIGITAL DECIMETRIC SOLAR SPECTROSCOPE, FIRST RESULTS

H.S. Sawant1, K. R. Subramanian2, C. Faria1, F.C.R. Fernandes1, J.R. Ceccato1, S. Stephany1, R.R. Rosa1, V.A. Portezani1, F.P.V. Mesquita1, and E.M.B. Alonso1

1 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - INPE - São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.

2 Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP), Bangalore, India.

Real time high sensitivity, time and frequency resolution digital decimetric solar spectroscope, unique of its kind in the southern hemisphere, is in regular operation since April 1998 in conjunction with 9 meter diameter parabolic polar mounted antenna. It can operate in the frequency range of (200 - 2500) MHz, and one can choose a suitable frequency band, number of channels to be digitized, maximum up to 100, and corresponding time (10 - 1000) ms and frequency resolutions (1 - 3) MHz. This spectroscope has additional advantage that it monitors and displays activity in real time. A set of data is acquired and stored in the files lasting with time interval anything between 1 min. and 20 min. and sent to another remote PC, where these files are processed and displayed for monitoring, which enables to choose the observational parameters in real time, permitting good quality of observations. Absolute timing accuracy of the station is < 3ms, which enables the comparison of the short duration type III like bursts with X-rays and other data obtained from satellites. Variety of the activity observed, and details of the data acquisition and visualization and calibrations will be presented.