22SPACEWX Spectroscopic Radio Imaging Study of May 2024 Gannon Storm Using MeerKAT Radio Telescope

The Sun showed some unusual activities in May 2024 and produced one of the largest geomagnetic storms after 2003. The associated X-class flares and CMEs produced intense solar radio bursts across a wide range of frequencies. Spectroscopic snapshot imaging and spectral modeling at radio wavelengths can provide several diagnostics of plasma parameters during these eruptions, particularly the magnetic field strengths both at the eruption site and the CME plasma, which are otherwise inaccessible. The MeerKAT radio telescope is one of the best radio instruments at GHz frequencies to produce high-fidelity solar images which can be used to understand the initiation part during the eruption of the CME. During this event, no dedicated solar observations were going on with MeerKAT. However, the high sensitivity of MeerKAT captures these radio bursts even when it was pointed at about 70 degrees away from the Sun and performing an astronomical observation. We have followed some non-conventional approaches for calibrating and imaging these observations to analyze one of the rarest events in the history of heliophysics. Here, we present the preliminary results of this off-pointed observation that captures the radioactivity from the Sun associated with the Gannon storm. We will also present how the plasma parameters estimated from these spectroscopic radio observations can be used for understanding and modeling these events.