The seismic diversity of four successive solar cycle minima as observed by the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON)

TL;DR

This study uses helioseismic data from BiSON to analyze internal solar structure changes across four solar cycle minima, revealing subtle but significant variations linked to magnetic activity levels.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed helioseismic comparison of multiple solar minima, highlighting structural differences and demonstrating the potential for asteroseismic studies of other stars.

Findings

Higher sound speed during cycle 23/24 minimum

Larger HeII ionisation zone signature in cycle 23/24

Structural changes correlate with solar activity proxies

Abstract

We have used data collected by the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON) to perform a helioseismic diagnosis of changes to the Sun's internal structure between four successive solar cycle minima, beginning with the minimum at the end of cycle 21 and ending with the recent minimum at the beginning of cycle 25. The unique duration of the BiSON database makes such a study possible. We used the low-degree BiSON p-mode frequencies to constrain structural changes between minima in the layers above $\approx 0.9 R_{\odot}$. We accomplished this by examining variations in the HeII ionisation zone signature; and by inverting the frequency differences to infer changes in the sound speed. Additionally, we employed frequency differences between various solar models that had subtle modifications to their internal structures to facilitate analysis of the observations. We find evidence for small, but marginally significant, changes in structure between different minima. The HeII signature was larger, and the sound speed in the range $\approx 0.93$ to $0.97 R_{\odot}$ was slightly higher, during the cycle 23/24 minimum, than during the other minima. The cycle 23/24 minimum was the deepest, as measured by proxies of global solar activity. These findings are consistent with magnetic flux levels having been lower in this minimum than the others, resulting in a higher gas pressure, higher temperatures, and higher sound speed. Our results demonstrate the potential of using asteroseismic data to perform similar analyses on other solar-type stars.