Perspectives in Global Helioseismology, and the Road Ahead

TL;DR

This paper reviews the evolution and current state of global helioseismology, highlighting its contributions to understanding the Sun's internal structure and dynamics, and discusses future challenges and directions for the field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the field's development, emphasizing how modern data and analysis techniques have advanced understanding and opened new research avenues.

Findings

Enhanced datasets have refined solar interior models.

New analysis methods have revealed previously inaccessible solar features.

The field faces ongoing challenges in resolving remaining questions about solar dynamics.

Abstract

We review the impact of global helioseismology on key questions concerning the internal structure and dynamics of the Sun, and consider the exciting challenges the field faces as it enters a fourth decade of science exploitation. We do so with an eye on the past, looking at the perspectives global helioseismology offered in its earlier phases, in particular the mid-to-late 1970s and the 1980s. We look at how modern, higher-quality, longer datasets coupled with new developments in analysis, have altered, refined, and changed some of those perspectives, and opened others that were not previously available for study. We finish by discussing outstanding challenges and questions for the field.