The Sun-as-a-star observations: GOLF & VIRGO on SoHO, and BiSON network

TL;DR

This paper reviews over 17 years of Sun-as-a-star helioseismic observations from SoHO and over 30 years from BiSON, emphasizing their importance for understanding the Sun's interior and activity cycle in the context of stellar asteroseismology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the current status and significance of long-term helioseismic data from SoHO and BiSON for solar and stellar studies.

Findings

Long-term data sets enhance understanding of the Sun's deep interior.

Helioseismic observations inform models of solar activity cycles.

Data quality and continuity are crucial for asteroseismic comparisons.

Abstract

Sun-as-a-star observations are very important for the study of the conditions within the Sun and in particular for the deep interior where higher degree modes do not penetrate. They are also of significance in this era of dramatic advances in stellar asteroseismology as they are comparable to those measured in other stars by asteroseismic missions such as CoRoT, Kepler, and MOST. More than 17 years of continuous measurements of SoHO and more than 30 years of BiSON observations provide very long data sets of uninterrupted helioseismic observations. In this work, we discuss the present status of all these facilities that continue to provide state- of-the-art measurements and invaluable data to improve our knowledge of the deepest layers of the Sun and its structural changes during the activity cycle.