Is the solar meridional circulation profile single-, double-, or multiple-cell? At least, a constraint of equatorward angular momentum transport by meridional circulation favors the double-cell structure, although the inversion with a constraint of mass conservation favors single cell.
The Sun’s near surface shear layer (NSSL) is characterized by using HMI ring-diagram results. It is found the NSSL is composed of three distinct layers: a deeper larger region with a small shear, a narrow middle layer with a strong shear, and a layer very close to the surface.
A spectro-polarimetric analysis of the sunquake sources observed during an X1.5 flare revealed transient emission in the FeI 6173Å line core, indicating intense, impulsive heating in the lower photosphere at the beginning of the flare impulsive phase.
Equatorial Rossby waves are detected using the HMI’s time-distance subsurface flow fields. It is also found that the power of the Rossby waves show a positive correlation with the sunspot number, while the frequency of the waves shows an anti-correlation with the sunspot number.
Spectral analysis of the spatial structure of solar subphotospheric convection is carried out for subsurface flow maps. It is found that the horizontal flow scales increase rapidly with depth, from supergranulation to giant-cell values. The total power of the convective flows is found to be anticorrelated with the sunspot number variation over the solar activity cycle in shallow subsurface layers and positively correlated at larger depths.
Forward modeling is applied to numerous global hydrodynamic solar models, and helioseismic measurements on the meridional circulation are made using the forward modeling results. Comparison against the observational measurements shows significant differences, indicating our insufficient knowledge on either the global hydrodynamic modeling or the helioseismic inversions.
Twelve years of HMI Dopplergram and magnetogram data have been used to uncover the solar cycle dependence of the magnetically quietest regions on the Sun and to reveal an enigmatic behavior of the surface-gravity wave energy contained in those regions.
Analysis on high-spectral resolution data shows that oscillations in the higher atmosphere lead those in the lower atmosphere by an order of 1 s when their frequencies are below about 3.0 mHz, and lags behind by about 1 s when their frequencies are above 3.0 mHz. These phase shifts in the evanescent waves pose great challenges to the interpretation of some local helioseismic measurements that involve data acquired at different atmospheric heights.
High-frequency inertial waves were detected inside the Sun, propagating retrograde relative to the solar rotation with a phase speed faster than equatorial Rossby waves. How these waves are generated is discussed but remains unclear.
Sunquakes are helioseismic waves excited by solar flares, usually observed in the photosphere. However, some of these events are found to have their counterparts in the chromosphere, as observed in the SDO/AIA UV channels.