High resolution observations of continuum radiation

The Polar spacecraft has identified near-source regions of continuum emission in the plasmapause and outer plasmasphere. As in the case of kilometric continuum (KC), near-source regions of continuum emission often display a high resolution fine structure of closely spaced bands of emission. The separation of the bands is much less than the local gyrofrequency. This suggests that the source is associated with density structures and perhaps the result of trapped eigenmodes. These results imply further that continuum emission is the low-frequency manifestation of KC emission.