# GONG p-mode frequency changes with solar activity

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Solar surface phenomena such as sunspots, magnetic field, 11-year solar cycle, and associated activities are the consequence of dynamical processes occurring inside the Sun. The fundamental parameters responsible for most of the activities are the magnetic and velocity fields, thus the acoustic mode (p-mode) frequencies could be influenced by the solar activity. Hence, a relation between the solar frequencies and activity indices may throw some light on the changes occurring deep in the solar interior and provide clues to the mechanism of solar cycle. The first evidence that the frequencies of the p-modes change with the solar cycle, came from the observations of low degree ($`\mathrm{}`$) modes. From the low-$`\mathrm{}`$ ACRIM data a decrease in the frequencies of 0.42 $`\mu `$Hz between 1980 and 1984 was reported by Woodard and Noyes (1985). It was suggested by Kuhn (1988) that the observed variation in frequencies is due to the changes in the internal temperature structure and are correlated with the variation in the surface temperature. Subsequently, Goldreich et al. (1991) theoretically showed that the variations in the solar p-mode eigen frequencies are related to the perturbations in the magnetic flux at the sun s surface. Observations made during the rising phase of the solar cycle 22 by the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) group found an increase of about 0.4 $`\mu `$Hz in mean frequency during the period 1986-89 (Libbrecht & Woodard (1990)). Further, it was shown that the frequencies varied on a time scale as short as 3 weeks with the absolute value of the magnetic field strength over the visible solar disk (Woodard et al. 1991). These results confirmed the theoretical work by Goldreich et al. (1991). Now, there is growing evidence that the mode frequencies vary with solar activity. Bachmann & Brown (1993) using the High Altitude Observatory’s (HAO) Fourier Tachometer data for $`\mathrm{}`$ between 20 and 60 in the frequency range of 2600-3200 $`\mu `$Hz showed that the p-mode frequency shifts correlate remarkably well with six solar activity indices during 1984 October through 1990 November. For the low degree modes ($`\mathrm{}<`$3) and during different time epochs, several groups (Anguera Gubau et al. (1992), Régulo et al. 1994, Jiménez-Reyes et al. (1998)) have shown that the frequency shifts are well correlated with solar activity cycle.

It has also been shown that the frequency splitting coefficients vary with solar cycle (Kuhn 1988, Woodard and Libbrecht (1993) ). It was pointed out that the even-order coefficients are sensitive to the solar cycle or to the latitude-dependent properties while the odd-order coefficients reflects the advective, latitudinally symmetric part of the perturbations caused by rotation. Recently, using the GONG data, Anderson, Howe, & Komm (1998) have found evidence for small shifts in the central frequencies and splitting coefficients. From the solar oscillation data obtained from Michelson Doppler Imager on board SOHO, during 1996 May 1 through 1997 April 25, Dziembowski et al. (1998) also detected a significant trend in the splitting coefficients.

Motivation for the present work arose due to the availability of high precision frequencies from the GONG network, and for extending the earlier studies to include the declining phase of cycle 22 and the beginning of cycle 23. In this study, we also look for a possible correlation between the p- mode frequency shifts and nine solar activity indices representing the photospheric, chromospheric and coronal activities.

## 2 OSCILLATION DATA AND SOLAR ACTIVITY INDICES

The GONG data (Hill et al. (1996)) used in this study consist of 8 data sets covering a period of two years from 1995 August 23 to 1997 August 11, in the frequency range between 1500 to 3500 $`\mu `$Hz and $`\mathrm{}`$ from 2 to 150. This period covers the GONG months (GM) 4 to 9 (1995 August 23 to 1996 March 25) each of 36 days, GM 12-14 (1996 June 6-September 21) and GM 21-23 (1997 April 26-August 11) of 108 days each. The period from 1995 August through 1996 September covers the declining phase of the solar cycle 22, whereas the period from 1997 April-August refers to the beginning of cycle 23.

For calculating the frequency shifts, we have used the frequency of GM 12-14 as a reference. The choice of this standard frequency has been made in view of two reasons; (a) that this datum lies in the middle of the period covered in this study, and (b) that it represents the period of the minimum solar activity. The mean frequency shift is found from the relation:

$$\delta \nu (t)=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{}\frac{Q_n\mathrm{}}{\sigma _n\mathrm{}^2}\delta \nu _n\mathrm{}(t)/\underset{n\mathrm{}}{}\frac{Q_n\mathrm{}}{\sigma _n\mathrm{}^2}$$
(1)   
where $`Q_n\mathrm{}`$ is the inertia ratio as defined by Chistensen-Dalsgaard & Berthomieu (1991), $`\sigma _n\mathrm{}`$ is the error in frequency measurement, as provided by GONG and $`\delta \nu _n\mathrm{}`$(t) is the change in the measured frequencies for a given $`\mathrm{}`$, and radial order, $`n`$. We have neglected those mode frequencies for which $`\sigma _n\mathrm{}>`$ 0.1 $`\mu `$Hz, to avoid large errors in calculating the mean shifts. The resulting mean weighted frequency shift $`\delta \nu `$ is plotted against the GONG months for four different $`\mathrm{}`$ ranges (2 $`\mathrm{}`$ 19, 20 $`\mathrm{}`$ 60, 61 $`\mathrm{}`$ 150, and 2 $`\mathrm{}`$ 150) and is shown in Figure 1. For the interval GM 4 to 9, the frequency shift shows a systematic decrease of about 0.06 $`\mu `$Hz for all $`\mathrm{}`$ values while for GM 9 to 23, the mean shift shows an increase of 0.04 $`\mu `$Hz, indicating that the solar oscillation frequency varies with solar activity. We have correlated the mean frequency shifts with different solar activity indices: the International sunspot number, $`R_I,`$ obtained from the Solar Geophysical Data (SGD); KPMI, Kitt Peak Magnetic Index from Kitt peak full disk magnetograms (Harvey (1984)); SMMF, Stanford Mean Magnetic Field from SGD; MPSI, Magnetic Plage Strength Index from Mount Wilson magnetograms (Ulrich et al. (1991)); FI, total flare index from SGD and Ataç (1999); He I, equivalent width of Helium I 10830$`\AA `$ line, averaged over the whole disk from Kitt peak; Mg II, core-to-wing ratio of Mg II line at 2800$`\AA `$ from SUVSIM (SGD); F<sub>10</sub>, integrated radio flux at 10.7 cm from SGD; Fe XIV, Coronal line intensity at 5303$`\AA `$ from SGD. A mean value was computed for each activity index over the interval corresponding to the same GONG month.

## 3 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

To study the relative variation in frequency shift $`\delta \nu `$ with activity index $`i`$, we assume a linear relationship of the form:

$$\delta \nu =ai+b,$$
(2)   
where $`\delta \nu `$ includes the mean error in the measured frequencies. The slope, $`a`$ and the intercept, $`b`$ are obtained by performing a linear least square fit. Figure 2 shows a typical plot of our analysis for all modes between 2 to 150. The solid line represents the best fit regression line and shows that the data is consistent with the assumption of a linear relationship. The bars represent 1$`\sigma `$ error in fitting. We also carried out $`\chi ^2`$-test which takes into account the statistical uncertainties of each of the frequency shift. As there is no reliable estimate available of the uncertainties in the measurement of activity indices, those are not included in the fitting.

The linear relationship given in equation (2) is further tested by calculating the parametric Pearson’s coefficient, $`r_p`$, and the non-parametric Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, $`r_s`$ along with their two-sided significance, $`P_p`$, and $`P_s`$ respectively, for all the $`\mathrm{}`$ ranges. As a typical example, these parameters are given in Table 1, for the $`\mathrm{}`$ range of 2 to 150. From the table, it is clear that a positive correlation exists for all the activity indices. We note that the best correlation is obtained for Mg II index, while F<sub>10</sub> and Fe XIV indices show good correlation. SMMF show poor correlation, perhaps due to large gaps in the available data. Normally, we expect better correlation should exist between the surface magnetic activity and $`\delta \nu `$, as this is the fundamental parameter for all solar activity. However, from Table 1, we notice that the radiative indices ($`F_{10}`$, Mg II and Fe XIV) show better correlation as compared to magnetic field indices. Backmann and Brown (1993) using the HAO data had obtained a similar result. The reason for such a difference in the level of correlation needs further investigation.

In order to investigate the degree dependence of frequency shifts with activity indices, we carried out a statistical analysis for three different ranges of $`\mathrm{}`$. It is seen that the fitting parameters, $`a`$ and $`b`$ do not show significant variation with $`\mathrm{}`$. The lowest $`\chi ^2`$ values are found for 2 $`\mathrm{}`$ 19, while for 20 $`\mathrm{}`$ 60 and 61 $`\mathrm{}`$ 150 the $`\chi ^2`$ values are higher. It is further noted that the correlation coefficients, $`r_p`$, and $`r_s`$ for all $`\mathrm{}`$ ranges have values between 0.75 to 1.0 for all solar indices except for He I and SMMF. Comparing $`r_p`$ and $`r_s`$ values for all activity indices, it is noted that for 2 $`\mathrm{}`$ 19 these values are systematically less, indicating a week correlation as compared to the other $`\mathrm{}`$-ranges. Thus, there appears to be some evidence that the frequency shift depends on $`\mathrm{}`$.

Comparing our results for 20 $`\mathrm{}`$ 60 with those of Woodard et al. (1991), and Bachmann & Brown (1993) for modes of similar degrees (Table 2), we find that the magnitude of slope $`a`$, is comparable in all the three cases for the KPMI index, the only index common in all the three analysis. However, a small difference of 0.003 $`\mu `$Hz between the GONG and BBSO data and 0.001 $`\mu `$Hz between the GONG and HAO data is noticed. This difference may be due to different frequency intervals and phase of the solar cycle. A detailed comparison between BBSO and HAO results was made by Régulo et al. (1994). The other four indices considered in HAO and our work show similar correlation.

The temporal behavior of the solar frequency shifts and the mean monthly sunspot number $`R_z`$ is shown in Figure 3. The diamonds represent the HAO data for the period 1984 October to 1990 October, while the triangles indicate the GONG data for the period 1995 August to 1997 August. A polynomial of order $`n`$ of the form

$$\delta \nu =a_0+\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_id^i$$
(3)   
is fitted separately to each set of frequency shift $`\delta \nu `$ since the reference frequencies for HAO and GONG data are different. Here, $`a_0`$, and $`a_i`$ are the fitting coefficients and $`d`$ the number of days after 1981 January 1. The best fit for HAO data is obtained with a polynomial of order 4, while a polynomial of order 2 fits the GONG data. The fitting coefficients for HAO data are; $`a_0`$ = 0.557, $`a_1`$ = 1.583x10<sup>-4</sup>, $`a_2`$ = $``$1.107x10<sup>-6</sup>, $`a_3`$ = 5.839x10<sup>-10</sup>, $`a_4`$ = $``$8.282x10<sup>-14</sup>, and for GONG data are; $`a_0`$ = 10.948, $`a_1`$ = $``$3.847x10<sup>-3</sup>, $`a_2`$ = 3.369x10<sup>-7</sup>. From this plot it is evident that the mean frequency shifts systematically follow the solar activity cycle 22 and the beginning of cycle 23.

We conclude that a positive and linear correlation exists between the frequency shift and the nine solar activity indices. It is observed that the radiative indices show better correlation as compared to the magnetic indices. This analysis shows a decrease of 0.06 $`\mu `$Hz in weighted frequency during the declining phase of solar cycle 22 and an increase of 0.04 $`\mu `$Hz during the ascending phase of cycle 23. Our finding confirms that the temporal behavior of the solar frequency shifts, closely follow the phase of the solar activity cycle and we conjecture that the same trend will continue during cycle 23.

We thank H.M. Antia for his critical remarks and helpful discussions. We also thank T. Ataç, L. Floyd, and R.K. Ulrich for supplying us the Flare index, Mg II (v19r3), and MPSI data respectively. The authors are thankful to the referee for critical suggestions. This work utilizes data obtained by the Global Oscillation Network Group project, managed by the National Solar Observatory, a Division of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which is operated by AURA, Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The data were acquired by instruments operated by Big Bear Solar Observatory, High Altitude Observatory, Learmonth Solar Obsrvatory, Udaipur Solar Observatory, Instituto de Astrophsico de Canaris, and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. NSO/Kitt Peak magnetic, and Helium measurements used here are produced cooperatively by NSF/NOAO; NASA/GSFC and NOAA/SEL. This work is partially supported under the CSIR Emeritus Scientist Scheme and Indo-US collaborative programme–NSF Grant INT-9710279.