Solar radio spikes are short duration, narrowband radio bursts that are signatures of the acceleration of non-thermal electrons in solar flares. They are observed over a wide range of frequencies from the tens of MHz (Melnik et al. 2014) to the GHz range (Benz et al. 1992) and have some of the shortest durations and narrow bandwidths of any solar radio bursts. The origin of spikes is not fully understood. Their short durations represent an upper limit for the energy release time, and coupled with their narrow frequency bandwidths, spikes are indicative of processes that occur on millisecond timescales, providing an avenue to study the fastest processes in the solar corona. The high brightness temperatures associated with the spikes indicate coherent mechanisms; namely, plasma emission or electron cyclotron maser (ECM) emission.
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Source: Phys.org