Probing the Solar Atmosphere Using Oscillations of Infrared CO Spectral Lines

TL;DR

This study uses infrared CO spectral line oscillations to analyze solar p-modes, revealing their formation height, power distribution, and atmospheric properties, including the acoustic cutoff frequency and thermal relaxation dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the formation height of CO lines, the behavior of p-modes at different heights, and the thermal relaxation frequency variation in the solar atmosphere.

Findings

P-modes are confirmed as solar oscillations through power and phase analysis.

CO line formation height varies from 425 to 560 km from disk center to limb.

Thermal relaxation frequency decreases significantly with height in the solar atmosphere.

Abstract

Oscillations were observed across the whole solar disk using the Doppler shift and line depth of spectral lines from the CO molecule near 4666~nm with the National Solar Observatory's McMath/Pierce solar telescope. Power, coherence, and phase spectra were examined, and diagnostic diagrams reveal power ridges at the solar global mode frequencies to show that these oscillations are solar p-modes. The phase was used to determine the height of formation of the CO lines by comparison with the IR continuum intensity phase shifts as measured in Kopp et al., 1992; we find the CO line formation height varies from 425 < z < 560 km as we move from disk center towards the solar limb 1.0 > mu > 0.5. The velocity power spectra show that while the sum of the background and p-mode power increases with height in the solar atmosphere as seen in previous work, the power in the p-modes only (background subtracted) decreases with height, consistent with evanescent waves. The CO line depth weakens in regions of stronger magnetic fields, as does the p-mode oscillation power. Across most of the solar surface the phase shift is larger than the expected value of 90 degrees for an adiabatic atmosphere. We fit the phase spectra at different disk positions with a simple atmospheric model to determine that the acoustic cutoff frequency is about 4.5 mHz with only small variations, but that the thermal relaxation frequency drops significantly from 2.7 to 0 mHz at these heights in the solar atmosphere.