2026/06/09 by Ivey Davis, Gregg Hallinan, Nikita Kosogorov +51 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae75ed
The Space Weather Around Young Suns (SWAYS) program was introduced in \citetDavis2025 as a multi-wavelength monitoring program for studying the activity and particle environments of nearby, young, solar-type stars. The SWAYS program currently includes the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA) operating between 13--87 MHz to search for stellar equivalents of solar type~II and III bursts, which are associated with bulk plasma motion in the corona and interplanetary medium. These observations are accompanied by simultaneous photometric data from the high-precision, optical instrument Flarescope to identify associated flare events. These two instruments have collectively acquired nearly 900 hr of data with ≈70% overlap between November 2023--June 2024, dedicated to six stars. Here, we present the results of this first season of the SWAYS observing campaign, which include a superflare from the star EK~Draconis with no accompanying low-frequency particle-flux signal. The novelty of the coordination at these specific parts of the spectrum allow us to uniquely evaluate the conditions that may have inhibited a radio detection. We find that the exceptionally hot, dense coronae of incredibly active stars may not be conducive to the development of the instabilities required for type~II and III bursts, or else inspire new expectations for when we should expect to observe a signal relative to the time of the flare. This may represent the plasma-density complement to the magnetospheric limitations to observing space-weather signatures at low frequencies.