Abstract
Four Mt. Wilson measurements (T>4 h) of the photospheric motion at one point on the Sun are shown to have the characteristics of a narrow-band random process. The motion is shown to have a characteristic correlation time of 23 min and a mean power spectrum that is a smooth, single-peaked function centered at 3.4 mHz. In order to make this classification we use the analytic signal to estimate the amplitude, phase, and frequency as functions of time. The power spectrum analysis differs from the common approaches in that it uses the theoretical expression for the mean spectrum for a sequence of random pulses. Because of the random nature of the motion, we doubt the existence of more than one eigenfrequency characteristic of the photosphere as a whole. Likewise, any description of the observed motion in terms of simple deterministic functions will be inadequate for the data used here.
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The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
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White, O.R., Cha, M.Y. Analysis of the 5 min oscillatory photospheric motion. Sol Phys 31, 23–53 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156071
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00156071