New results on interplanetary type III radio storms from multi-spacecraft combined STEREO-A/B and WIND observations

Interplanetary (IP) type III radio storms were intensively studied in the 80's (Bougeret et al. 1984a,b) using observations from a single radio instrument on the ISEE-3 spacecraft located at the Lagrange point L1. These studies showed that the IP storms trace long lasting (several days) streams of energetic electrons occurring in corotating regions of enhanced density, appearing to be the extension of active regions through the IP space at levels 0.05 - 0.8 AU. These studies were consistent with the hypothesis of steady conditions in the storm region over periods of several days. We propose the hypothesis that the overall duration of an IP storm observed from one vantage point directly results from the beaming of the radio radiation when the steady radio source corotates with the Sun. The goal of the present study is to track the evolution of the IP radio storms observed from three vantage points separated by about 90 degrees and spanning 180 degrees (STEREO-B, WIND, STEREO-A), over a time period of the order of a solar rotation, in order to test the limits of the above hypothesis and to track the evolution of the IP radio storms over periods close to a solar rotation.