  The Murchison Widefield Array is a low frequency (80 - 300 MHz) SKA
Precursor, comprising 128 aperture array elements (known as tiles) distributed
over an area of 3 km diameter. The MWA is located at the extraordinarily radio
quiet Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory in the mid-west of Western
Australia, the selected home for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 SKA low frequency
arrays. The MWA science goals include: 1) detection of fluctuations in the
brightness temperature of the diffuse redshifted 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen
from the epoch of reionisation; 2) studies of Galactic and extragalactic
processes based on deep, confusion-limited surveys of the full sky visible to
the array; 3) time domain astrophysics through exploration of the variable
radio sky; and 4) solar imaging and characterisation of the heliosphere and
ionosphere via propagation effects on background radio source emission. This
paper concentrates on the capabilities of the MWA for solar science and
summarises some of the solar science results to date, in advance of the initial
operation of the final instrument in 2013.
