Engineering topics

Gough, D.

Publications and source records attributed to Gough, D..

8 records

NASA NTRS1985

Seismology of the sun

The use of the sun's oscillations, caused by the constructive interference between internally reflected waves, to study the interior of the sun is examined. Pressure and buoyancy have the strongest influence on oscillations; pressure fluctuations at high frequency produce acoustic waves and at low frequency buoyancy produces internal gravity waves. The theory of acoustic wave frequency, which is used to determine measurements of sound speed and rate of rotation of the solar interior as well as the thickness of the convection zone, is presented. The classification of solar oscillations is described. The models for acoustic modes of low degree and intermediate degree are discussed. The effect of internal speed, gravity modes, and solar rotation on solar models is determined. The oscillation frequencies yield an He abundance that is consistent with cosmology, but they reinforce the severity of the neutrino problem.

Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Solar Inverse Theory

Helioseismological inversion, as with the inversion of any other data, is divided into three phases. The first is the solution of the so-called forward problem: namely, the calculation of the eigenfrequencies of a theoretical equilibrium state. The second is an attempt to understand the results, either empirically by determining how those frequencies vary as chosen parameters defining the equilibrium model are varied, or analytically from asymptotic expansions in limiting cases of high order or degree. The third phase is to pose and solve an inverse problem, which seeks to find a plausible equilibrium model of the Sun whose eigenfrequencies are consistent with observation. The three phases are briefly discussed in this review, and the third, which is not yet widely used in helioseismology, is illustrated with some selected inversions of artificial solar data.

Gough, D.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Rotational Inversion from Global Solar Oscillations

The degree to which various sets of solar oscillations can resolve the solar internal rotation was investigated. Genuine observations were simulated by the following procedure; first an artificial angular velocity was invented, and from it the rotational splitting of a set of normal modes was calculated; to that was added some random noise. The result was treated as artificial data and an attempt to recover the rotation law by using the Backus-Gilbert optimal averaging procedure was made. Neither the original rotation law nor the amount of noise that had been added was known. The conclusion was compared with the actual artificial angular velocity.

Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Sensitivity of Inferred Subphotospheric Velocity Field to Mode Selection, Analysis Technique and Noise

The horizontal velocity immediately below the photosphere was inferred from observations of high degree solar oscillations by an optimal averaging inversion technique. The sensitivity of the results to various details of both the inversion and the determination of the frequencies are investigated. The results are shown to be quite stable to the choice of most parameters, suggesting that this procedure produces reliable estimates of the subsurface velocity.

Hill, F.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Implications of Observed Frequencies of Solar P Modes

A preliminary comparison is made of the observed frequencies of 5 min P modes with theoretical frequencies for a traditional solar model. The differences between observations and theory can be understood qualitatively in terms of two separate sources of error in the frequency calculation, one near the solar surface and the other at the base of the convection zone. There is no indication of errors in the deep interior of the model.

Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Attempt to measure the solar subsurface velocity

Five-minute oscillation modes are advected by horizontal velocities below the solar surface, and thus can be used as probes of rotation and large-scale convective flows. Results of inverse theory applied to observations of high-degree modes carried out on six separate days reveal variations in horizontal velocities with depth from day to day that may be the result of giant convection cells, through noise in the data makes this interpretation somewhat tentative.

Hill, F.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Observation of additional low-degree 5-min modes of solar oscillation

High-order solar oscillations with degrees l=3, 4, and 5 could be detected. The observations were made by measuring the difference between the shifts in the Fe 5,124 spectrum line from light integrated from a central circular portion of the solar disk and from an annular portion exterior to it. The frequencies of the octupole modes agree well with the values obtained from whole-disk measurements at the South Pole. A least-squares fit of the observed frequencies to values interpolated between and extrapolated from the predictions of a sequence of solar models with different chemical compositions selects two models. One, a helium-rich solution, agrees with that of similar analyses of whole-disk data. The extrapolated solution has a relatively deep convection zone, and is thus consistent with analyses of 5-min oscillations of high degree.

Scherrer, P. H.↗

NASA NTRS1981

On the seat of the solar cycle

A discussion of some of the issues raised in connection with the seat of the solar cycle are presented. Is the cycle controlled by a strictly periodic oscillator that operates in the core, or is it a turbulent dynamo confined to the convection zone and possibly a thin boundary layer beneath it? Sunspot statistics are discussed, with a view to ascertaining the length of the memory of the cycle, without drawing a definitive conclusion. Also discussed are some of the processes that might bring about variations delta L and delta R in the luminosity and the radius of the photosphere. It appears that the ratio W = delta lnR/delta lnL increases with the depth of the disturbance that produces the variations, so that imminent observations might determine whether or not the principal dynamical processes are confined to only the outer layers of the Sun.

Gough, D.↗