| Name: Soham Dey |
| Affiliation: National Centre for Radio Astrophysics |
| Conference ID: ASI2026_680 |
| Title: Making Solar Radio Imaging Accessible: Processing a Decade of LOFAR Solar Observations with SIMPL |
| Abstract Type: Poster |
| Abstract Category: Sun, Solar System, Exoplanets, and Astrobiology |
| Author(s) and Co-Author(s) with Affiliation: Soham Dey(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007, India), Divya Oberoi(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007, India), Pietro Zucca(ASTRON, Dwingeloo - 7991, Netherlands), Mattia Mancini(SKA Observatory, Macclesfield - SK11 9FT, United Kingdom), Deepan Patra(National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune - 411007, India) |
| Abstract: Solar radio emissions originate from a wide range of phenomena — from faint gyrosynchrotron emission associated with CMEs, to thermal emission from the quiet Sun, and the intense coherent emissions from solar radio bursts. These emissions can span up to nine orders of magnitude in intensity over small spans in time and frequency, making them a powerful probe of the solar solar corona. Yet, despite their potential, radio images of the Sun remain under-used in solar physics. A major reason is the lack of accessible, feature-rich analysis tools, and the difficulty and steep learning curve associated with adapting standard radio astronomy software to solar data.
To address these, we have developed a robust, fully unsupervised solar calibration and imaging pipeline — the Solar Imaging Pipeline for LOFAR (SIMPL). LOFAR, the Low Frequency Array, is a large European network of radio antennas operating in the frequency range 10 to 240 MHz, capable of imaging the Sun’s radio emission with high fidelity at high temporal and spectral resolution. SIMPL delivers images with dynamic range 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the previous efforts. This is achieved by employing calibration and flagging strategies specifically tailored for solar data like careful selection of data to be used for calibration; a custom radio-frequency interference flagger optimized for solar data; and a self-calibration scheme tuned specifically for the solar case.
This automated pipeline is currently being employed to deliver science ready FITS images of the last decade of LOFAR observations for broader community access. This presentation will outline the design and capabilities of SIMPL, describe how the pipeline and processed data products can be accessed and used by the wider community, and present glimpses of recent scientific results enabled by this pipeline.
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