Measuring the Whole-Sun Intensity at Decimetre Wavelengths

The study of the sources of the slowly varying component at decimetre and centimetre wavelengths has been a major preoccupation of solar radio astronomers. Grating interferometers and other high-resolution aerial systems have enabled the separation of the S-component from the Sun’s total emission, and the study of individual sources. Nevertheless much of value remains to be derived from whole-sun intensity measurements—the most basic solar radio observation.