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New receivers and signal processing equipment have transformed the 27-meter (90-foot) telescopes into a powerful interferometer for studying the Sun. Solar temperatures range from about 5,500 degrees Celsius at the solar surface to two million degrees at a higher level known as the corona. In the corona, strong magnetic fields guide and constrain ionized gas. Solar flares occur when the energy stored in the tangled magnetic fields explosively releases. Electrons in these fields generate radio emission at wavelengths dependent on the strength of the field. The solar interferometer can be tuned rapidly to many different wavelengths so magnetic fields of different intensities can be seen almost simultaneously. Scientists can then determine the way in which these fields emerge, strengthen, entangle themselves, perhaps fire, and then decay.
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