Data from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) project and other helioseismic experiments provide a test for models of stellar interiors and for the thermodynamic and radiative properties, on which the models depend, of matter under the extreme conditions found in the sun. Current models are in agreement with the helioseismic inferences, which suggests, for example, that the disagreement between the predicted and observed fluxes of neutrinos from the sun is not caused by errors in the models. However, the GONG data reveal subtle errors in the models, such as an excess in sound speed just beneath the convection zone. These discrepancies indicate effects that have so far not been correctly accounted for; for example, it is plausible that the sound-speed differences reflect weak mixing in stellar interiors, of potential importance to the overall evolution of stars and ultimately to estimates of the age of the galaxy based on stellar evolution calculations.
A new fitting methodology is presented which is equally well suited for the estimation of low-, medium-, and high-degree mode parameters from maveraged solar oscillation power spectra of widely differing spectral resolution. This method, which we call the "Windowed, MuLTiple-Peak, averaged spectrum", or WMLTP Method, constructs a theoretical profile by convolving the weighted sum of the profiles of the modes appearing in the fitting box with the power spectrum of the window function of the observing run using weights from
We present a new methodology for the fitting of the peaks in solar oscillation power spectra that is equally well-suited for the estimation of low-, medium, and high-degree f- and p-mode parameters and frequency-splitting coefficients. The method can provide accurate input data over a wide portion of the dispersion plane for both structural and rotational inversions. This method, which we call the Multiple-Peak, Tesseral-Spectrum (MPTS) method, operates directly upon of all of the modes in a multiplet (n, l) of radial order n and degree l, and employs a fitting profile that consists of the sum of numerous individual overlapping profiles whose relative amplitudes are determined by the leakage matrix appropriate to the targeted mode. Hence, 2l + 1 sets of modal parameters are obtained simultaneously for each multiplet (n, l). By fitting an appropriate polynomial to the run of the fitted frequencies versus the azimuthal order, frequency-splitting coefficients are also obtained for the same multiplet. Using power spectra obtained from the 66 day long 2010 MDI Dynamics Run, we present sample structural and rotational inversions that employed frequencies and frequency-splitting coefficients from modes in the degree range of 0–1000 and the frequency range of 965–4600 μHz. The structural inversion confirms evidence for a pronounced departure of the sound speed in the outer solar convection zone from the radial sound-speed profile contained in Model S of Christensen-Dalsgaard and his collaborators that we obtained previously using a different fitting method.
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