It is now recognized that Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) are the major
cause for geomagnetic
storms and their attendant, oftentimes undesirable, effects on Earth.
CME events are often
preceded by burst activity; as such, close monitoring of burst events
would act as an early,
convenient warning system for geomagnetic storms. To the present
date, the effort to
collect, and moreover provide, such data has been miniscule in Western
longitudes. There
are a few notable exceptions, such as the
US Air Force's Radio Solar
Telescope Network (MA,
NM, and HI), the
Goddard
Decametric Radio Telescope (MD), and the
Solar Radio Burst Locator
(CA). Such efforts, however, are more for cataloguing purposes than
to provide an impetus
for further analysis by the greater research community. Thus, the
major contribution of the
Green Bank Solar Radio Burst Monitor is the fact that it will be the
first instrument in
Western longitudes to make research-quality broadband (10 - 3000 MHz)
dynamic spectra of
the Sun available for analysis by the Solar and space weather communities.