Frequency and rotational splittings of the solar f-modes are estimated from
the GONG data. Contrary to earlier observations the frequencies of f-modes are
found to be close to the theoretically computed values for a standard solar
model. The f-mode being essentially a surface mode is a valuable diagnostic
probe of the properties of the solar surface, and also provides an independent
measure of solar radius. The estimated solar radius is found to be about 0.03%
less than what is traditionally used in construction of standard solar models.
If this decrease in solar radius is confirmed then the current solar models as
well as inversion results will need to be revised. The rotational splittings of
the f-modes yield an independent measure of the rotation rate near the solar
surface, which is compared with other measurements.Comment: 5 pages, A&A-TeX, 5 figure