Solar Rotation Rate During the Cycle 24 Minimum in Activity

The minimum of solar cycle 24 is significantly different from most other minima in terms of its duration as well as its abnormally low levels of activity. Using available helioseismic data that cover epochs from the minimum of cycle 23 to now, we study the differences in the nature of the solar rotation between the minima of cycles 23 and 24. We find that there are significant differences between the rotation rates during the two minima. There are differences in the zonal-flow pattern too. We find that the band of fast rotating region close to the equator bifurcated around 2005 and recombined by 2008. This behavior is different from that during the cycle 23 minimum. By auto-correlating the zonal-flow pattern with a time shift, we find that in terms of solar dynamics, solar cycle 23 lasted for a period of 11.7 years, consistent with the result of Howe et al. (2009). The autocorrelation coefficient also confirms that the zonal-flow pattern penetrates through the convection zone.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Rotational splitting as a function of mode frequency for six Sun-like stars

Asteroseismology offers the prospect of constraining differential rotation in Sun-like stars. Here we have identified six high signal-to-noise main-sequence Sun-like stars in the Kepler field, which all have visible signs of rotational splitting of their p-mode frequencies. For each star, we extract the rotational frequency splitting and inclination angle from separate mode sets (adjacent modes with l=2, 0, and 1) spanning the p-mode envelope. We use a Markov chain Monte Carlo method to obtain the best fit and errors associated with each parameter. We are able to make independent measurements of rotational splittings of ~8 radial orders for each star. For all six stars, the measured splittings are consistent with uniform rotation, allowing us to exclude large radial differential rotation. This work opens the possibility of constraining internal rotation of Sun-like stars.Comment: Published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 4 pages, 3 figure

Characterization of solar-cycle induced frequency shift of medium- and high-degree acoustic modes

Although it is well known that the solar acoustic mode frequency increases as the solar activity increases, the mechanism behind it is still unknown. Mode frequencies with 20 < l < 900 obtained by applying spherical harmonic decomposition to MDI full-disk observations were used. First, the dependence of solar acoustic mode frequency with solar activity was examined and evidence of a quadratic relation was found indicating a saturation effect at high solar activity. Then, the frequency dependence of frequency differences between the activity minimum and maximum was analyzed. The frequency shift scaled by the normalized mode inertia follows a simple power law where the exponent for the p modes decreases by 37% for modes with frequency larger than 2.5 mHz.Comment: Proceedings of GONG-SoHO 24: A new era of seismology of the sun and solar-like star

Solar Dynamics, Rotation, Convection and Overshoot

We discuss recent observational, theoretical and modeling progress made in understanding the Sun's internal dynamics, including its rotation, meridional flow, convection and overshoot. Over the past few decades, substantial theoretical and observational effort has gone into appreciating these aspects of solar dynamics. A review of these observations, related helioseismic methodology and inference and computational results in relation to these problems is undertaken here.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, Space Science Review

A study of possible temporal and latitudinal variations in the properties of the solar tachocline

Temporal variations of the structure and the rotation rate of the solar tachocline region are studied using helioseismic data from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) and the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) obtained during the period 1995--2000. We do not find any significant temporal variation in the depth of the convection zone, the position of the tachocline or the extent of overshoot below the convection zone. No systematic variation in any other properties of the tachocline, like width, etc., is found either. Possibility of periodic variations in these properties is also investigated. Time-averaged results show that the tachocline is prolate with a variation by about 0.02R_sun in its position. The depth of the convection zone or the extent of overshoot does not show any significant variation with latitude.Comment: To appear in MNRA

Solar-cycle variation of the sound-speed asphericity from GONG and MDI data 1995-2000

We study the variation of the frequency splitting coefficients describing the solar asphericity in both GONG and MDI data, and use these data to investigate temporal sound-speed variations as a function of both depth and latitude during the period from 1995-2000 and a little beyond. The temporal variations in even splitting coefficients are found to be correlated to the corresponding component of magnetic flux at the solar surface. We confirm that the sound-speed variations associated with the surface magnetic field are superficial. Temporally averaged results show a significant excess in sound speed around 0.92 solar radii and latitude of 60 degrees.Comment: To be published in MNRAS, accepted July 200

On The Determination of MDI High-Degree Mode Frequencies

The characteristic of the solar acoustic spectrum is such that mode lifetimes get shorter and spatial leaks get closer in frequency as the degree of a mode increases for a given order. A direct consequence of this property is that individual p-modes are only resolved at low and intermediate degrees, and that at high degrees, individual modes blend into ridges. Once modes have blended into ridges, the power distribution of the ridge defines the ridge central frequency and it will mask the true underlying mode frequency. An accurate model of the amplitude of the peaks that contribute to the ridge power distribution is needed to recover the underlying mode frequency from fitting the ridge. We present the results of fitting high degree power ridges (up to l = 900) computed from several two to three-month-long time-series of full-disk observations taken with the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on-board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory between 1996 and 1999. We also present a detailed discussion of the modeling of the ridge power distribution, and the contribution of the various observational and instrumental effects on the spatial leakage, in the context of the MDI instrument. We have constructed a physically motivated model (rather than some ad hoc correction scheme) resulting in a methodology that can produce an unbiased determination of high-degree modes, once the instrumental characteristics are well understood. Finally, we present changes in high degree mode parameters with epoch and thus solar activity level and discuss their significance.Comment: 59 pages, 38 figures -- High-resolution version at http://www-sgk.harvard.edu:1080/~sylvain/preprints/ -- Manuscript submitted to Ap

What Is The Neon Abundance Of The Sun?

We have evolved a series of thirteen complete solar models that utilize different assumed heavy element compositions. Models that are based upon the heavy element abundances recently determined by Asplund, Grevesse, and Sauval (2005) are inconsistent with helioseismological measurements. However, models in which the neon abundance is increased by 0.4-0.5 dex to log N(Ne) = 8.29 +- 0.05 (on the scale in which log N(H) = 12) are consistent with the helioseismological measurements even though the other heavy element abundances are in agreement with the determinations of Asplund et al. (2005). These results sharpen and strengthen an earlier study by Antia and Basu (2005). The predicted solar neutrino fluxes are affected by the uncertainties in the composition by less than their 1sigma theoretical uncertainties.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ. Minor editorial change