Vla and Spacecraft Observations of Solar Activity

We describe the world’s largest synthesis radio telescope, the Very Large Array (VLA), and how it can be used to complement observations with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Yohkoh solar spacecraft. The VLA provides images with high spatial and temporal resolution, often across the visible solar disk. The VLA also detects nonthermal radiation that is not observed with SOHO and Yohkoh, and provides estimates for the coronal magnetic field strengths that are not directly measured by these spacecraft. The VLA data can be combined with SOHO CDS, SOHO EIT, or Yohkoh SXT observations to provide new insights to the compact, variable sources, called blinkers and bright points, in the solar transition region or low corona. A new 400 cm VLA system provides images of nonthermal burst activity associated with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), and may detect thermal emission from CMEs, that can be compared with SOHO’s LASCO and EIT instruments to obtain new information about the origin and evolution of CMEs.