Defining the solar brightness temperature accurately at millimeter wavelengths has always been challenging. One of the main reasons has been the lack of a proper calibration source. New Moon was… Click to show full abstract
Defining the solar brightness temperature accurately at millimeter wavelengths has always been challenging. One of the main reasons has been the lack of a proper calibration source. New Moon was used earlier as a calibration source. We carried out a new extensive set of observations at 8 mm using the New Moon for calibration. The solar and Moon observations were made using the 14-meter radiotelescope operated by the Aalto University Metsähovi Radio Observatory in Finland. In this article, we present our method for defining the brightness temperature of the quiet-Sun level (QSL). Based on these observations, we found 8100K±300K$8100~\mbox{K} \pm 300~\mbox{K}$ to be the mean value for the QSL temperature. This value is between the values that were reported in earlier studies.
               
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