Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
The slowly varying (S-) component of solar microwave emission originates in the vicinity of sunspots and chromospheric plages. A significant portion of this component is produced by bright, compact sources which are much smaller than the active regions in which they occur (Lang, 1974; Kundu et al., <y>1977</y>; Donati Falchi et al., 1978; Lang and Willson, 1979). The combined radio-optical investigation reported here was initiated to explore, in regions at various stages of evolution, both the variability of compact microwave sources and their association with specific optical features.