What does helioseismology tell us about solar cycle related structural changes in the Sun?

TL;DR

This paper uses helioseismic data over six years to analyze how solar oscillation frequencies vary with solar activity, revealing that near-surface layers primarily drive these changes rather than deeper structural variations.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on the temporal changes in solar structure, emphasizing the dominance of near-surface layer variations over deeper layers.

Findings

Frequency variations are mainly due to near-surface layer changes.

Deeper solar layers show minimal structural variation over the solar cycle.

Helioseismic data effectively constrain solar structural changes over time.

Abstract

Solar oscillations frequencies show a distinct change with solar activity. The changes in frequencies can be used to study the time variation of solar structure. We discuss constraints on the changes in solar structure with time as obtained with helioseismic data covering the last six years. The frequency variations appear to be dominated by changes in the near-surface layers rather than by changes in the structure of the deeper layers.