Shock-wave Radio Probing of Solar Wind Sources in Coronal Magnetic Fields

Abstract

The space weather effects in the near-Earth environment as well as in atmospheres of other terrestrial planets arise by corpuscular radiation from the Sun, known as the solar wind. The solar magnetic fields govern the solar corona structure. Magnetic-field strength values in the solar wind sources—key information for modeling and forecasting the space weather climate—are derived from various solar space- and ground-based observations, but so far not accounting for specific types of radio bursts. These are “fractured” type II radio bursts attributed to collisions of shock waves with coronal structures emitting the solar wind. Here, we report on radio observations of two “fractured” type II bursts to demonstrate a novel tool for probing of magnetic-field variations in the solar wind sources. These results have a direct impact on interpretations of this class of bursts and contribute to the current studies of the solar wind emitters.