The dynamic spectrum, a three dimensional record of the radio intensity as a function both of time and frequency, has long been used as a probe of plasma processes in the solar corona. Beginning with the work of Wild and McCready (1950) dynamic spectroscopy has beeI1 used to distinguish between the multitude of radio wave emitting phenomena which occur in the solar corona and to infer the physical mechanisms responsible.
Stellar dynamic spectroscopy has always been a tantalizing prospect. The vast body of experience with solar dynamic spectroscopy would prove invaluable ill interpreting stellar dynamic spectra. Further, the new parameter regimes presented by stellar coronas would allow further insight to be gained in the physicM processes at work in stellar coronas.
Recently, Bastian and Bookbinder (1987) used the Very Large Array* in spectral line mode at 1.4 GHz with a bandwidth of 50 MHz to obtain the first dynamic spectra of nearby flare stars. The spectral resolution was 3.125 MHz and the temporal resolution was 5 s. While the relative bandwidth was less than ideM (6u/u ~ 5%), the spectra so obtained were sufficient to show the presence of narrowband structure in a radio outburst from the well-known dMe flare star UV Ceti.
Several efforts are now underway to obtain stellar dynamic spectra, of both RS CVn binaries and dMe flare stars, with higher degrees of spectral and temporal resolution. Among these are use of a 1024 channel correlator with the 1000' telescope at Arecibo and use of the Berkeley Fast Pulsar Search Machine (Kulkarni et M. 1984) with the Green Bank 140' telescope.