The Future of Space Weather from the Perspective of Radio Observations

The Sun produces the most powerful explosions in the Solar System such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are important drivers of space weather as they can impact the near-Earth environment in two ways: their internal magnetic field can interact with Earth's magnetosphere and CME-driven shocks can accelerate particles to high energies that are often found in an Earth-directed trajectory. Radio observations are a powerful but underused tool to provide early signs of particle acceleration associated with solar flares and CMEs. They also have the potential to determine space weather impacting CME properties as soon as lift-off. Current ground and space-based instrumentation have provided the possibility to develop several methods to take advantage of radio observations in the heliosphere. For example, the continuous monitoring of radio bursts at the Sun can predict the occurrence of a CME shock and electron acceleration. In addition, Faraday Rotation measurements have shown to be an excellent tool for inferring the magnetic field of the solar corona, including CMEs and the background solar wind. However, currently there is only the possibility of continuous monitoring of radio spectra to detect the onset of radio bursts, while radio imaging and other methods cannot be utilized to their full potential. Future ground and space-based instrumentation is needed to improve on the current methods and to continuously monitor solar activity at radio wavelengths.