A Multi-Instrument Investigation of the Frequency Stability of Oscillations Above the Acoustic Cut-Off Frequency with Solar Activity

TL;DR

This study investigates how pseudomode oscillation frequencies above the acoustic cut-off vary with the solar cycle using multi-instrument data over two decades, revealing instrument-dependent behaviors and unexplained periodicities.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of pseudomode frequency variations across multiple instruments and solar cycles, highlighting differences and novel features not previously documented.

Findings

GONG data shows anti-phase variation with the solar cycle.

VIRGO and GOLF data show no significant variation.

A double-peak feature in frequency shifts at solar minimum.

Abstract

Below the acoustic cut-off frequency, oscillations are trapped within the solar interior and become resonant. However, signatures of oscillations persist above the acoustic cut-off frequency, and these travelling waves are known as pseudomodes. Acoustic oscillation frequencies are known to be correlated with the solar cycle, but the pseudomode frequencies are predicted to vary in anti-phase. We have studied the variation in pseudomode frequencies with time systematically through the solar cycle. We analyzed Sun-as-a-star data from Variability of Solar Irradiance and Gravity Oscillations (VIRGO), and Global Oscillations at Low Frequencies (GOLF), as well as the decomposed data from Global Oscillation Network (GONG) for harmonic degrees $0\le l \le 200$. The data cover over two solar cycles (1996--2021, depending on instrument). We split them into overlapping 100-day long segments and focused on two frequency ranges, namely $5600$--$6800\,\rm\mu Hz$ and $5600$--$7800\,\rm\mu Hz$. The frequency shifts between segments were then obtained by fitting the cross-correlation function between the segments' periodograms. For VIRGO and GOLF, we found no significant variation of pseudomode frequencies with solar activity. However, in agreement with previous studies, we found that the pseudomode frequency variations are in anti-phase with the solar cycle for GONG data. Furthermore, the pseudomode frequency shifts showed a double-peak feature at their maximum, which corresponds to solar activity minimum, and is not seen in solar activity proxies. An, as yet unexplained, pseudo-periodicity in the amplitude of the variation with harmonic degree $l$ is also observed in the GONG data.