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Solar structure from global studies of the 5-minute oscillation

Nature volume 282, pages 591–594 (1979)Cite this article

Abstract

High sensitivity Doppier spectroscopy of integral sunlight in the 769.9 nm line of neutral potassium reveals several equally spaced lines of Q > 1,000 centred on the well known period of 5 min. These lines are interpreted as low l, high n overtones of the entire Sun and, if viewed in terms of current solar models, appear to imply a low heavy element abundance and a consequent low solar neutrino flux. Previous workers1–3 have used spatial resolution to study the 5-min oscillation of the solar photosphere and have shown that power is concentrated along narrow ridges in the k, w diagram. These oscillations are mainly low n, high l value acoustic modes of the entire Sun. In contrast to this, the present work (for a summary see ref. 4) is aimed at an overall view of the solar surface and consequently is biased to a study of low l value oscillations. These modes penetrate deeply5 and thus probe the structure as well as the interior angular velocity of the Sun6.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    A. Claverie, G. R. Isaak, C. P. McLeod & H. B. van der Raay

  2. Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife

    T. Roca Cortes

Authors
  1. A. Claverie
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  2. G. R. Isaak
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  3. C. P. McLeod
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  4. H. B. van der Raay
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  5. T. Roca Cortes
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Claverie, A., Isaak, G., McLeod, C. et al. Solar structure from global studies of the 5-minute oscillation. Nature 282, 591–594 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/282591a0

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