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The paper covers characteristics of big interferometers and reflecting radio telescopes intended for the studies of the solar atmosphere radiation. Solar radio interferometers (radioheliographs) have proven to be more cost-effective than single dish radio telescopes, since using the aperture synthesis allows for fast imaging of the Sun and its active regions with higher spatial resolution, thus, studying solar eruptive processes more efficiently. From the other hand, the studies of many fundamental aspects of the solar atmosphere physics requiring studies of low-contrast structures before and after flares gained no proper development. The efficiency of radio reflectors was enhanced in last decades mainly due to the development of matrix methods of reception, focal arrays, and also due to spectroscopic analysis in the wide wavelength range with high flux density sensitivity. Meanwhile, the diversity of issues related to the physics of the solar atmosphere and active processes requires an optimal combination of capabilities of various microwave interferometric and reflecting systems for joint studies of the Sun. In view of the started implementation of solar observation programs with a new instrument, ALMA, and obtaining newly observed data in the millimeter and submillimeter ranges, the areas of development of solar studies with the RATAN-600 radio telescope in the wide wavelength range are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present new observational data on the phenomena of extremely high activity on the Sun and in the heliosphere that took place in October-November 2003. A large variety of solar and heliospheric parameters give evidence that the interval under consideration is unique over the entire observation time. Based on these data, comparing them with similar situations in the past and using available theoretical concepts, we discuss possible cause-and-effect connections between the processes observed. The paper includes the first results and conclusions derived by the collaboration "Solar Extreme Events-2003" organized in Russia for detailed investigations of these events. As a result of our consideration, it is beyond question that the physical causes of solar and heliospheric phenomena in October-November 2003 are not exclusively local and do not belong only to the active regions and solar atmosphere above them. The energy reservoirs and driving forces of these processes have a more global nature. In general, they are hidden from an observer, since ultimately their sources lie in the subphotospheric layers of the Sun, where changes that are fast and difficult to predict can sometimes take place (and indeed they do). Solar flares can serve as sufficiently good tracers of these sudden changes and reconstructions on the Sun, although one can still find other diagnostic indicators among the parameters of magnetic fields, motions of matter, and emission characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]