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At least 109 records · Page 6

What we know about the sun's internal rotation from solar oscillations

In this paper, a uniform approach of inversion was used to determine the internal rotation rate of the sun from each of the six available sets of solar oscillation data, which included the data of Duvall et al. (1986), Rhodes et al. (1987, 1990), Tomczyk (1988), Brown and Morrow (1987), and Libbrecht (1989). The technique chosen for inverting the solar oscillation data was the discretized least-squares technique. The results indicate that the rotation rate of the sun in the equatorial plane declines going inward between the surface and 0.6 of the radius and that the polar rate increases going inward (i.e., the surfacelike differential rotation decreases with depth).

Goode, Philip R.↗

Coronal Rotation at Solar Minimum from UV Observations

UVCS/SOHO observations have been analyzed to reconstruct intensity time series of the O VI 1032 A and H 11216 A spectral lines at different coronal heliolatitudes from 1.5 to 3.0 solar radii from Sun center. Evidence was found for coronal differential rotation that differs significantly from that of the photospheric plasma. The study of the latitudinal variation shows that the UV corona decelerates toward the photospheric rates from the equator up to the poleward boundary 2 of the midlatitude streamers, reaching a peak of 28.16+/-0.20 days around +30 from the equator at 1.5 solar radii, while a less evident peak is observed in the northern hemisphere. This result suggests a real north-south rotational asymmetry as a consequence of different activity and weak coupling between the magnetic fields of the two hemispheres. The study of the radial rotation profiles shows that the corona is rotating almost rigidly with height.

Mancuso, S.↗

Buoyancy and solar spin-down

Rapidly rotating solar interior damping by large scale convection analysis via maximum buoyancy force in water cylinder transition

Modisette, J. L.↗

Stationarity of magnetohydrodynamic fluctuations in the solar wind

Solar wind research and studies of charged particle propagation often assume that the interplanetary magnetic field represents a stationary random process. The extent to which ensemble averages of the solar wind magnetic fields follow the asymptotic behavior predicted by the ergodic theorem was investigated. Several time periods, including a span of nearly two years, are analyzed. Data intervals which span many solar rotations satisfy the conditions of weak stationarity if the effects of solar rotation are included in the asymptotic analysis. Shorter intervals which include a small integral number of interplanetary sectors also satisfy weak stationarity. The results are illustrated using magnetometer data from the ISEE-3, Voyager and IMP spacecraft.

Matthaeus, W. H.↗

Characteristics of a solar-terrestrial observatory

The operation of the Solar-Terrestrial Observatory is outlined. It will monitor the diurnal, solar rotational, seasonal, and solar cycle variation to aid the understanding of the solar-terrestrial interaction mechanism. The continuous measurements at a space station include in-situ remote sensing, and active probing techniques.

Source record↗

Solar-terrestrial influences on weather and climate; Proceedings of the Symposium, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, August 24-28, 1978

The book contains most of the invited papers and contributions presented at the symposium/workshop on solar-terrestrial influences on weather and climate. Four main issues dominate the activities of the symposium: whether solar variability relationships to weather and climate is a fundamental scientific question to which answers may have important implications for long-term weather and climate prediction; the sun-weather relationships; other potential solar influences on weather including the 11-year sunspot cycle, the 27-day solar rotation, and special solar events such as flares and coronal holes; and the development of practical use of solar variability as a tool for weather and climatic forecasting, other than through empirical approaches. Attention is given to correlation topics; solar influences on global circulation and climate models; lower and upper atmospheric coupling, including electricity; planetary motions and other indirect factors; experimental approaches to sun-weather relationships; and the role of minor atmospheric constituents.

Mccormac, B. M.↗

Open magnetic structures on the sun

High-resolution harmonic analysis of the solar magnetic field has been used succesfully to calculate the geometry of open magnetic field lines in the solar corona. Comparison of the loci of open-field-line footpoints with solar X-ray photographs shows that all the coronal holes during two solar rotations are successfully represented, including details of their evolution. Some open magnetic configurations derived in the calculations precede by up to one solar rotation the manifestation of coincident dark areas on the X-ray photographs. The only other areas that contribute open field lines to the corona are separations between active-region loop systems. By varying the radius at which field lines are forced to be open in the calculation, it is possible to reproduce more closely the surface configuration of particular coronal holes. Comparison of the size of X-ray holes with the fraction of the solar surface covered by open field lines leads to the conclusion that a significant part of the area of coronal holes must contain closed magnetic fields. Comparison of open field lines which lie in the equatorial plane of the sun with solar-wind data indicates that eventual high-speed solar-wind streams are associated with those parts of open magnetic structures that diverge the least.

Levine, R. H.↗

A new method of presentation the large-scale magnetic field structure on the Sun and solar corona

The large-scale photospheric magnetic field, measured at Stanford, has been analyzed in terms of surface harmonics. Changes of the photospheric field which occur within whole solar rotation period can be resolved by this analysis. For this reason we used daily magnetograms of the line-of-sight magnetic field component observed from Earth over solar disc. We have estimated the period during which day-to-day full disc magnetograms must be collected. An original algorithm was applied to resolve time variations of spherical harmonics that reflect time evolution of large-scale magnetic field within solar rotation period. This method of magnetic field presentation can be useful enough in lack of direct magnetograph observations due to sometimes bad weather conditions. We have used the calculated surface harmonics to reconstruct the large-scale magnetic field structure on the source surface near the sun - the origin of heliospheric current sheet and solar wind streams. The obtained results have been compared with spacecraft in situ observations and geomagnetic activity. We tried to show that proposed technique can trace shon-time variations of heliospheric current sheet and short-lived solar wind streams. We have compared also our results with those obtained traditionally from potential field approximation and extrapolation using synoptic charts as initial boundary conditions.

Ponyavin, D. I.↗

A three-component model of the variability of the solar ultraviolet flux 145-200 nM

The variability of the ultraviolet flux between 145 and 200 nm over both the eleven-year cycle and the 27-day solar rotation period is examined in terms of chromospheric activity, as determined from ground-based observations of the CaII K chromosphere. A three-component model of the solar UV flux is developed which includes the contributions to the full disk flux from both plage and active network emission. Solar cycle and solar rotation variations derived from the model are compared with the results of satellite and rocket experiments and with the two-component model of Cook et al (1980). Finally, possible ways of improving the model are discussed.

Lean, J. L.↗

Ulysses observations of a recurrent high speed solar wind stream and the heliomagnetic streamer belt

Near-ecliptic solar wind observations by Ulysses on its way to the polar regions of the Sun, compared with those from IMP 8 at 1 AU, showed that high-speed streams decay and broaden with heliocentric distance from IMP 8 to Ulysses, as expected. In July 1992 while traveling south at approximately 13 deg S and 5.3 AU, Ulysses encountered a recurrent high-speed stream, that may also have been observed at IMP 8. The stream has been observed a total of 14 times, once in each solar rotation through June 1993 at approximately 34 deg S. The source of the high-speed stream is an equatorward extension of the south polar coronal hole. From July 1992 through June 1993, averages of solar wind peak speed increased while density decreased with heliographic latitude. Both the stream and a low-speed, high-density flow, presumably associated with the heliomagnetic (coronal) streamer belt encircling the heliomagnetic equator, crossed Ulysses with the solar rotation period until April 1993 when the spacecraft was at approximately 29 deg S heliographic latitude. After this time, as the spacecraft climbed to higher latitudes, the central portion of the streamer belt with lowest speed and highest density disappeared. Therefore, at its maximum inclination, the belt was tilted at approximately 29 deg to the heliographic equator at this point in the solar cycle.

Bame, S. J.↗

X-Ray Observations of Recurrence of Eruptive Flares and Active Regions

In a study of soft X-ray coronal images obtained with the Yohkoh spacecraft, two eruptive flares with remarkably similar X-ray structures were noted -- most remarkably because the flares occurred at the same solar location (approximately 10 degrees north latitude on the east limb) yet separated in time by three solar rotations. Between the times of the eruptions, the active region responsible for the first flare disappeared from Yohkoh images. An extremely similar X-ray active region replaced it by the third solar rotation. The recurring X-ray active region appearance and recurring flare activity after 86 days suggest that persistent subsurface flux emergence patterns might be responsible, and support previous arguments that 'active longitudes' exist.

Batchelor, David↗

Coalescence of recurrent streams of different sizes and amplitudes

Two corotating streams per solar rotation, separated by the heliospheric plasma sheet, were observed at 1 AU during 1974, and the streams recurred four times during the interval from day 145 to day 255. A single compound stream per solar rotation was observed at 5.5 - 6.0 AU during the corresponding interval from day 165 to day 275, indicating that the two recurrent streams observed at 1 AU coalesced between 1 AU and 6 AU. The average maximum speed of one of the recurrent streams was 805 km/s while that of the other recurrent stream was 705 km/s. The compound stream was not formed by the overtaking of the slow stream by the fast stream. Rather, it was probably formed by a process involving both filtering (due to the fact that the slow stream was 50 percent wider than the fast stream) and a geometrical effect.

Burlaga, L. F.↗

A Regional Classification of Time Spectral Amplitudes in Total Electron Content: Southeastern United States During Solar Cycle 24

To investigate the meso-scale structure (100 s of km) of the ionosphere at mid-latitudes, the spectral properties in calculated total electron content (TEC) at a cluster of GPS receivers in and around Florida are analyzed. The ionosphere does not respond exactly the same to periodic solar driving at different locations around the planet, due to the complex electrodynamic interactions of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Therefore, at each GPS receiver in the cluster we compare spatio-temporal variations of the spectral amplitudes for diurnal, solar rotation, and seasonal oscillations. The amplitudes for these dominant oscillations are organized with respect to magnetic latitude of the receiver. A low-latitude and high-latitude station are also included to put the mid-latitude ionospheric response into a global context. The amplitudes of diurnal, seasonal, and solar rotation signals are well ordered by magnetic latitude, superposed with meso-scale deviations between stations separated by ~100s of km. The results suggest that spatio-temporal variations of spectral amplitudes in the mid-latitude ionosphere are not dominated by a single process. This conclusion is based on our finding that at high latitude, the shape of the diurnal signal varies significantly less with solar activity compared to low- and mid-latitudes, and additionally, that the ratio of annual to semi-annual amplitudes fluctuates around 1 with time and from station-to-station only at mid-latitudes.

ionosphere↗

The radial dependences of the interplanetary magnetic field between 1 and 5 AU Pioneer 10

Pioneer 10 vector helium magnetometer data acquired in 1972-1973 during Bartels solar rotations 1896-1918 are used to investigate the radial dependences of the distant interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) between 1 and 5 AU. Least-square fits were determined for the radial dependences of the averages of the magnitudes of IMF components and total field and plane projections, and radial fits were prepared for the standard deviations of these variables over the solar rotation, one day, and three-hour intervals. The variation of the weighted averages of the radial component of the field with respect to the heliocentric distance, the variation of the tangential component of the field, and the characteristics of a subset corresponding to a relatively low average solar wind velocity are reported.

Rosenberg, R. L.↗

Comparative solar EUV flux for the San Marco ASSI

The Airglow and Solar Spectrometer Instrument (ASSI) on the San Marco D/L satellite has measured solar extreme ultraviolet irradiances. The data are currently being released for analysis. As a preliminary step in evaluating this important dataset, modeled solar irradiances from 4 to 105 nm are presented for comparison to the San Marco data. The comparable flux for March-December 1988 is obtained from a revised and extended empirical solar EUV model derived from OSO 1, OSO 3, OSO 4, OSO 6, AEROS A, and AE-E satellite and six rocket flight datasets. Solar rotational features are prominent on several occasions in the model time series. A useful example is the modeled integrated flux between 30-31 nm which includes the Si XI (30.3-nm) and He II (30.4-nm) irradiance. The modeled flux in this 1-nm range shows both an absolute 22 percent increase from beginning to end of mission and a solar rotational variability with a typical peak-to-valley ratio of 14 percent.

Tobiska, W. K.↗

Identification of solar vibration-rotation lines of NH and the solar nitrogen abundance

High resolution solar spectra obtained from the ATMOS Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Spacelab 3 flight on April 29 - May 6, 1985) made it possible to detect for the first time vibration-rotation lines of NH from the X3 Sigma(-) state near 3 microns. Using recent theoretical results for the transition probabilities of 23 selected measured lines of the 1-0 and 2-1 bands, a solar abundance of nitrogen of 8.06 + or - 0.07 is derived. This value is compared with the result derived from N I lines and agrees with the abundance obtained from the 3s-3p, 3p-3d and 3s-prime - 3p-prime transitions, A(N) = 8.00 + or - 0.09. The final recommended solar abundance of nitrogen is A(N) = 8.00 + or - 0.05.

Grevesse, N.↗