Synoptic Solar Radio Burst Source Directions Derived by the Ulysses URAP Investigation

The Unified Radio and Plasma (URAP) investigation is one of 10 instruments on the Ulysses spacecraft. Ulysses, with its highly inclined orbit around the sun, provides URAP with a unique perspective on solar radio bursts, which are usually emitted at low heliolatitudes as the electron sources move outward from the sun. These radio bursts provide positional information relating to interplanetary coronal mass ejections (type II radio bursts), the initiation of CMEs (type III-L bursts), and solar flares (type III bursts). In this presentation, we use the routine radio direction-finding data from URAP to track radio bursts and locate their sources when Ulysses is near perihelion. Plots of these data are available on the URAP Goddard Space Flight Center web site (for example, http://urap.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/giffer?date=20070726&PLOT_TYPE= DIRFIND), as are ASCII data files. The results shown are derived from fitting the spin-plane antenna data only; we compare the source directions so derived to the more accurate determinations made by fitting to both URAP antennas. The accuracy of the radio source directions to identify flare locations, determine solar wind densities remotely, etc., will be compared to previously published determinations. Applications to Wind Waves and STEREO Waves data, for which the spacecraft are in-ecliptic, will be addressed briefly.