Radio diagnostics
¥ Radio
synchrotron and hard X-ray bremsstrahlung come from the same electrons: can compare them quantitatively
¥ Nonthermal electrons emit radio waves
very easily: can see the morphology of the emitting
source in radio images
¥ Radio polarization tells up something
about the magnetic field geometry
¥ Correlating light curves of different
sources provides strong constraints
on magnetic connections
¥ Can also
see coronal density via free-free emission prior to flares (1011 cm-3 densities are optically thick at coronal temperatures
and would produce very strong radio emission)