A review of solar type III radio bursts

Abstract

Solar type III radio bursts are an important diagnostic tool in the understanding of solar accelerated electron beams. They are a signature of propagating beams of nonthermal electrons in the solar atmosphere and the solar system. Consequently, they provide information on electron acceleration and transport, and the conditions of the background ambient plasma they travel through. We review the observational properties of type III bursts with an emphasis on recent results and how each property can help identify attributes of electron beams and the ambient background plasma. We also review some of the theoretical aspects of type III radio bursts and cover a number of numerical efforts that simulate electron beam transport through the solar corona and the heliosphere. © 2014 National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences and IOP Publishing Ltd..