Differential Rotation and Dynamics of the Solar Interior

MJ Thompson; J Toomre; ER Anderson; HM Antia; G Berthomieu; D Burtonclay; SM Chitre; J Christensen-Dalsgaard; T Corbard; M DeRosa; CR Genovese; DO Gough; DA Haber; JW Harvey; F Hill; R Howe; SG Korzennik; AG Kosovichev; JW Leibacher; FP Pijpers; J Provost; EJ Rhodes Jr; J Schou; T Sekii; PB Stark; PR Wilson

doi:10.1126/science.272.5266.1300

Differential Rotation and Dynamics of the Solar Interior

Science. 1996 May 31;272(5266):1300-5. doi: 10.1126/science.272.5266.1300.

Affiliation

¹ M. J. Thompson and R. Howe are in the Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK. J. Toomre, M. DeRosa, and D. A. Haber are at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA. E. R. Anderson, J. W. Harvey, F. Hill, and J. W. Leibacher are at the National Solar Observatory (NSO), National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO), Post Office Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726-6732, USA. H. M. Antia and S. M. Chitre are at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay 400005, India. G. Berthomieu, T. Corbard, and J. Provost are at the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France. D. Burtonclay and P. R. Wilson are in the School of Mathematics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. J. Christensen-Dalsgaard and F. P. Pijpers are at the Theoretical Astrophysics Center, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. C. R. Genovese is in the Department of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. D. O. Gough and T. Sekii are in the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK. S. G. Korzennik is at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. A. G. Kosovichev and J. Schou are at Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory Annex, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4085, USA. E. J. Rhodes Jr. is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. P. B. Stark is in the Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3860, USA.

PMID: 8662459
DOI: 10.1126/science.272.5266.1300

Abstract

Splitting of the sun's global oscillation frequencies by large-scale flows can be used to investigate how rotation varies with radius and latitude within the solar interior. The nearly uninterrupted observations by the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) yield oscillation power spectra with high duty cycles and high signal-to-noise ratios. Frequency splittings derived from GONG observations confirm that the variation of rotation rate with latitude seen at the surface carries through much of the convection zone, at the base of which is an adjustment layer leading to latitudinally independent rotation at greater depths. A distinctive shear layer just below the surface is discernible at low to mid-latitudes.