# Large scale flows in the solar interior: Effect of asymmetry in peak profiles

## 1 Introduction

Ring diagram analysis has been extensively used to infer horizontal flows in outer part of the solar convection zone (Hill 1988; Patrón et al. 1997; Basu, Antia & Tripathy 1999). This technique is based on the study of three-dimensional (henceforth 3d) power spectra of solar p-modes on a part of the solar surface. In all the studies so far the power spectra have been fitted to symmetric Lorentzian peak profiles to calculate the frequency shifts due to velocity field. It has been demonstrated that in general, the peaks in solar oscillation power spectra are not symmetric (Duvall et al. 1993; Toutain 1993; Nigam & Kosovichev 1998; Toutain et al. 1998) and the use of symmetric profiles may cause the fitted frequency to be shifted away from the true value. The resulting frequency shift in the high degree modes using ring diagram analysis has been found to be significant for f-modes and low order p-modes (Antia & Basu 1999). Thus, it would be interesting to study how the use of asymmetric profiles affects the measurement of flow velocities.

In this work we use the data obtained by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to measure the flow velocities in the outer part of the solar convection zone. We fit the power spectra using asymmetric peak profiles and compare the results with our earlier results obtained using symmetric profiles (Basu et al. 1999). Although, it is possible to study the variation in horizontal velocity with both longitude and latitude, in this work, like in Basu et al. (1999), we have only considered the longitudinal averages, which contains information about the latitudinal variation in these flows. For this purpose, at each latitude we have summed the spectra obtained for different longitudes to get an average spectrum which has information on the average flow velocity at each latitude. We have studied both the rotational and meridional components of flow velocities.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: the basic technique used to calculate the horizontal flow velocities using ring diagrams is described in § 2. The results are discussed in § 3, while the conclusions from our study are summarized in § 4.

## 2 The technique

We adopt the ring diagram technique (Hill 1988; Patrón et al. 1997) to obtain the 3d power spectra of solar oscillations. We have used data from full-disk Dopplergrams obtained by the MDI instrument of the Solar Oscillations Investigation (SOI) on board SOHO. We have used the same spectra that were obtained by Basu et al. (1999). These spectra are based on regions covering about $`15^{}\times 15^{}`$ with $`128\times 128`$ pixels in heliographic longitude and latitude and centered at latitudes ranging from $`60^{}`$N to $`60^{}`$S. Each region was tracked for 4096 minutes and we have taken averages over 12 spectra covering an entire Carrington rotation in longitude. These spectra are spaced by $`30^{}`$ in longitude of the central meridian, which would correspond to a time interval of about 3273 minutes. Thus there is some overlap between different spectra. Similarly, we have taken spectra centered at different latitudes separated by $`5^{}`$ and hence there would be considerable overlap in region covered by spectra centered at neighboring latitudes. The data cover the period from about May 24 to June 21, 1996. Thus summing gives us a time averaged spectrum for the period covered.

To extract the flow velocities and other mode parameters from the 3d power spectra we fit a model of the form

$$P(k_x,k_y,\nu )=\frac{\mathrm{exp}(A_0+(kk_0)A_1+A_2(\frac{k_x}{k})^2+A_3\frac{k_xk_y}{k^2})(S^2+(1+Sx)^2)}{x^2+1}+\frac{e^{B_1}}{k^3}+\frac{e^{B_2}}{k^4},$$
(1)   
where

$$x=\frac{\nu ck^pU_xk_xU_yk_y}{w_0+w_1(kk_0)},$$
(2)   
$`k^2=k_x^2+k_y^2`$, $`k`$ being the total wave number, and the 13 parameters $`A_0,A_1,A_2,A_3,c,p,U_x,U_y,w_0,w_1,S,B_1`$ and $`B_2`$ are determined by fitting the spectra using a maximum likelihood approach (Anderson, Duvall & Jefferies 1990). Here, $`k_0`$ is the central value of $`k`$ in the fitting interval and $`\mathrm{exp}(A_0)`$ is the mean power in the ring. The coefficient $`A_1`$ accounts for the variation in power with $`k`$ in the fitting interval, while $`A_2`$ and $`A_3`$ terms account for the variation of power along the ring. The term $`ck^p`$ is the mean frequency, while $`U_xk_x`$ and $`U_yk_y`$ represent the shift in frequency due to large scale flows and the fitted values of $`U_x`$ and $`U_y`$ give the average flow velocity over the region covered by the power spectrum and the depth range where the corresponding mode is trapped. The mean half-width is given by $`w_0`$, while $`w_1`$ takes care of the variation in half-width with $`k`$ in the fitting interval. The terms involving $`B_1,B_2`$ define the background power, which is assumed to be of the same form as Patrón et al. (1997). $`S`$ is a parameter that controls the asymmetry, and the form of asymmetry is the same as that prescribed by Nigam & Kosovichev (1998). This parameter is positive for positive asymmetry, i.e., more power on the higher frequency side of the peak, and negative for negative asymmetry. By setting $`S=0`$ we can fit symmetric Lorentzian profiles.

The fits are obtained by maximizing the likelihood function $`L`$ or minimizing the function $`F`$ given by

$$F=\mathrm{ln}L=\underset{i}{}\left(\mathrm{ln}M_i+\frac{O_i}{M_i}\right),$$
(3)   
where the summation is taken over each pixel in the fitting interval. The term $`M_i`$ is the result of evaluating the model given by Eq. (1) at $`i^{\mathrm{th}}`$ pixel defined by $`k_x,k_y,\nu `$ in the 3d power spectrum, and $`O_i`$ is the observed power at the same pixel. To evaluate the quality of the fit we use the merit function (cf., Anderson et al. 1990)

$$F_m=\underset{i}{}\left(\frac{O_iM_i}{M_i}\right)^2$$
(4)   
where the summation is over all pixels in the fitting interval. Ideally, the merit function per degree of freedom should be close to unity. The number of degrees of freedom can be defined as the difference between the number of pixels in the fitting interval and the number of free parameters in the model.

We fit each ring separately by using the portion of power spectrum extending halfway to the adjoining rings. For each fit a region extending about $`\pm 100\mu `$Hz from the chosen central frequency is used. We choose the central frequency for fit in the range of 2–5 mHz. Power outside this range is not significant. The rings corresponding to $`0n6`$ have been fitted. In this work we express $`k`$ in units of $`R_{}^1`$, which enables us to identify it with the degree $`\mathrm{}`$ of the spherical harmonic of the corresponding global mode.

The fitted $`U_x`$ and $`U_y`$ for each mode represents an average of the velocities in the $`x`$ and $`y`$ directions over the entire region in horizontal extent and over the vertical region where the mode is trapped. We can invert the fitted $`U_x`$ (or $`U_y`$) for a set of modes to infer the variation in horizontal flow velocity $`u_x`$ (or $`u_y`$) with depth. We use the Regularized Least Squares (RLS) as well as the Optimally Localized Averages (OLA) techniques for inversion as outlined by Basu et al. (1999). The results obtained by these two independent inversion techniques are compared to test the reliability of inversion results. For the purpose of inversion, the fitted values of $`U_x`$ and $`U_y`$ are interpolated to the nearest integral value of $`k`$ (in units of $`R_{}^1`$) and then the kernels computed from a full solar model with corresponding value of degree $`\mathrm{}`$ are used for inversion. Since the fitted modes are trapped in outer region of the Sun, inversions are carried out for $`r>0.97R_{}`$ only.

## 3 Results

Following the procedure outlined in Section 2 we fit the form given by Eq. (1) to suitable regions of the 3d spectra. We use approximately 900 modes covering $`200\mathrm{}1100`$ and $`2000\nu 5000`$ $`\mu `$Hz for each spectrum. Fig. 1 shows some of the fitted quantities for the averaged spectrum obtained from the region centered at the equator. This figure can be compared with Fig. 2 in Basu et al. (1999). The asymmetry parameter $`S`$ is found to be significant and has a negative value for all the modes. The magnitude of $`S`$ appears to increase with frequency. However, the use of asymmetric profiles does not appear to affect the fitted half-width or the horizontal velocities $`U_x`$ and $`U_y`$ significantly. As with symmetric profiles, the fitted half-width $`w_0`$ appears to increase at low frequencies. This increase is probably artificial since the actual width is less than the resolution limit of the spectra. We have verified that keeping the width fixed during the fit for these modes does not affect the values of $`U_x`$ and $`U_y`$ obtained from the fits.

In order to test whether the fit with additional parameter $`S`$ is indeed better we show in Fig. 2 the merit function \[cf., Eq. (4)\] per degree of freedom for fits to both symmetric and asymmetric profiles. It is clear that the merit function has reduced significantly when the additional parameter $`S`$ is fitted. The value is close to unity for all modes at low $`n`$ which can be identified by the ridges in the low frequency end of Fig. 2. The improvement in the fit is not very clear for higher order modes, as the merit function does not appear to reduce significantly. Similar results were found for fits to 2d spectra obtained by averaging over the azimuthal direction (Antia & Basu 1999). In the 2d spectra too the f-modes were found to be distinctly asymmetric (Antia & Basu 1999), while the difference between fits to symmetric and asymmetric profiles was progressively less clear for higher order modes, even though the asymmetry parameter $`S`$ had similar magnitude. This is mainly because the estimated errors increase with $`n`$ as the corresponding rings in the 3d power spectra get smaller. It may be noted that for symmetric profiles we have done a number of experiments by including more terms denoting variations in parameters not included in Eq. (1), but these do not improve the fits significantly and merit function does not reduce perceptibly (Basu et al. 1999). Thus it appears that some asymmetry is indeed required to get good fits. This asymmetry can be clearly seen in azimuthally averaged spectra shown by Antia & Basu (1999). The asymmetry parameter $`S`$ shown in Fig. 1 is similar to what was found for the 2d fits in Antia & Basu (1999). Hence, it is clear that although it is difficult to visualize asymmetry in 3d fits, the peak profiles are indeed asymmetric.

There does not appear to be significant difference between the $`U_x`$ or $`U_y`$ obtained by fitting symmetric or asymmetric profiles to spectra obtained for the equatorial regions. However, at high latitudes the situation becomes somewhat different as can be seen from Figs. 3 and 4 which compare the fits to spectra from regions centered at a latitude of $`50^{}`$N. It may be noted that even for these latitudes the fitted values for the asymmetry parameter $`S`$ are similar to what is found for equatorial spectra. However, the fitted values of $`U_x`$ and $`U_y`$ are found to be more sensitive to asymmetry at higher latitudes, probably due to effects of foreshortening. The fits with the asymmetric profile give better results in general, as can be seen from the fact that the ridges in $`U_x,U_y`$ for different values of $`n`$ tend to merge better. The difference is particularly significant in $`U_y`$. The steep trend in the different ridges corresponding to low $`n`$ in $`U_y`$ obtained by fitting symmetric profiles results in large number of outliers during the inversions. As a result, we have to weed out a large number of modes to get reasonable inversion results. We weed out all modes which have residuals larger than $`4\sigma `$ for either $`U_x`$ or $`U_y`$ in an RLS inversion with low smoothing. This does not happen when asymmetric profiles are used. However, the fits are still not perfect at these latitudes even with use of asymmetric profiles and the merit function per degree of freedom is also somewhat larger than unity for low order modes. Clearly, more terms or a different form is required to improve the fits at high latitudes.

To study the effect of asymmetry on inverted profiles for horizontal velocity components $`u_x`$ and $`u_y`$, we perform inversions using both the fits and the results are shown in Figs. 5 and 6. It can be seen that except in deeper layers ($`r0.98R_{}`$), the inverted results are similar regardless of whether we fit a symmetric or asymmetric profile to the spectra. From the inversion results it is not possible to decide which fit is better, but looking at the residuals and the fitted $`U_x,U_y`$ in Figs. 3,4 it appears that asymmetric profiles would give more reliable results.

The rotation velocity at each latitude can be decomposed into the symmetric part \[$`(u_N+u_S)/2`$\] and an antisymmetric part \[$`(u_Nu_S)/2`$\]. The symmetric part can be compared with the rotation velocity as inferred from the splittings of global modes (Schou et al. 1998) which sample just the symmetric part of the flow. Since this component is not significantly affected by the asymmetry in peak profile we do not show the detailed results. However, the north-south antisymmetric component of rotation velocity is small and its significance is not well established from earlier studies and hence we reexamine these results with fits to asymmetric peak profiles. The results for near surface layers are shown in Fig. 7, which can be compared with Fig. 7 of Basu et al. (1999). It can be seen that the results are not significantly different from our earlier results. In deeper layers the uncertainties are larger and it is difficult to say anything about this component.

Since there is a distinct improvement in fits to $`U_y`$ at high latitudes when asymmetric peak profiles are used, we try to find its effect on meridional flow inferred from ring diagram analysis. Following Hathaway et al. (1996) we try to write the meridional component as

$$u_y(r,\varphi )=\underset{i}{}a_i(r)P_i^1(\mathrm{cos}(\varphi ))$$
(5)   
where $`\varphi `$ is the colatitude, and $`P_i^1(x)`$ are associated Legendre polynomials. The first six terms in this expansion are found to be significant and their amplitudes are shown in Fig. 8, which can be compared with Fig. 12 of Basu et al. (1999). It can be seen that use of asymmetric profiles introduces small changes in amplitudes mainly in deeper layers. The amplitudes of all even components increases slightly in deeper layers when asymmetric profiles are used for fitting. In particular, the $`P_4^1(\varphi )`$ component suggested by Durney (1993) is found to have an amplitude of about 3–4 m/s for $`0.97R_{}<r<0.99R_{}`$. There is no indication of any sign change in the meridional flow up to the depth of $`0.03R_{}`$, which is consistent with results of Braun & Fan (1998). However, the magnitude of meridional flow velocity that we find (30 m/s) is much larger than that obtained by Braun & Fan, who find a mean meridional velocity of 10–15 m/s averaged over latitudes $`20^{}`$$`60^{}`$. Clearly, more work is required to understand these differences.

We can also find the latitude at which $`u_y=0`$, which is the latitude near the equator where the meridional flow diverges towards the two poles. The results shown in Fig. 9 can be compared with those obtained by González Hernández et al. (1999). In general we find this point to be much closer to the equator as compared to what they have found. The difference may be mostly due to the fact that we have averaged over all longitudes in one Carrington rotation and as a result our error estimates are much lower. For all depths we find that this point is within $`4^{}`$ of the equator and we do not find any chaotic behavior near the surface. Of course, the resolution of inversions is limited to a depth below $`r=0.999R_{}`$ since we have only used modes with $`\mathrm{}<1100`$, which have lower turning points below this depth. Thus the thin layer near the surface is not resolved by inversions and we cannot expect reliable results there. It is not clear if the small departure of this point from the equator is significant as the difference in latitude estimated from the two inversion techniques is comparable to the value. A part of the effect may also be due to systematic errors arising from misalignment in the MDI instrument (Giles et al. 1997) and hence, no particular significance may be ascribed to the location of this point.

## 4 Conclusions

Using the ring diagram technique applied to MDI data we have determined horizontal velocities in the outer part of the solar convection zone ($`r>0.97R_{}`$). We find that the use of asymmetric peak profiles improve the fits to the 3d spectra —- as measured by the merit function — significantly. The asymmetry parameter is found to be negative for all the modes, i.e., there is more power on the lower frequency side of the peak. This is the same as what has been found earlier at the low-degree end of the power spectrum (Duvall et al. 1993; Toutain et al. 1998). However, the use of asymmetric profile does not affect the fitted velocities substantially.

The inferred meridional flow is dominated by the $`\mathrm{sin}(2\theta )`$ component which has an amplitude of about 30 m/s in most of region covered in this study. The $`P_4^1(\varphi )`$ component suggested by Durney (1993) also has significant amplitude of about 3–4 m/s in deeper layers. The north-south symmetric component of the meridional flow is generally small and the meridional velocity (as a function of latitude) changes sign at a point very close to equator at all depths. This point marks the region where flow diverges towards the two poles on two sides. The small departure of this point from equator may not be significant. There is no change in sign of meridional velocity with depth up to about 21 Mm.

This work utilizes data from the Solar Oscillations Investigation / Michelson Doppler Imager (SOI/MDI) on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. The authors would like to thank the SOI Science Support Center and the SOI Ring Diagrams Team for assistance in data processing. The data-processing modules used were developed by Luiz A. Discher de Sa and Rick Bogart, with contributions from Irene González Hernández and Peter Giles.