Solar variability and oscillations

Abstract

Within this decade, observations of total solar irradiance have become good enough to make it possible to study directly the solar luminosity variations on a wide range of time scales, up to several years. At the same time, there has been considerable improvement in understanding the classical indicators of solar activity, such as UV and visible chromospheric lines, soft X-rays, and radio fluxes. The observed variations include the effects of sunspots and plage solar-cycle effects, and signatures of global oscillations and convection. In addition, new characteristic time-scales (154 days and possibly 320 days) have been discovered. This review covers these developments and comments briefly on the subject of helioseismology.