Quasi-biennial oscillations are found in the Sun’s interior rotation-rate residuals. They appear differently at different depths and latitudes, and evolve with time.
Instead of the center-annulus measurement geometry that time-distance helioseismology typically uses, a new one-sided center-arc measurement scheme is developed. This method shows advantage in measuring subsurface flows in in a close neighborhood of magnetic regions.
A new website is developed to host HMI’s time-distance pipeline products, including far-side images, subsurface flows, evolution of near-surface zonal and meridional flows.
Helioseismic wavefields are simulated using different meridional-circulation models. Time-distance helioseismic measurements applied on the simulated data indicate that it may be difficult to distinguish between single- or double-cell meridional circulation profiles.
The giant cellular flows, obtained through tracking HMI-observed Dopplergrams, are used to estimate kinetic helicity and Reynolds stress inside the Sun, as well as differential rotation and poleward drift near the bottom of the convection zone.
In an MHD simulation of flux emergence, a δ-sunspot is formed spontaneously by a collision of areas with opposite polarities. Driven by convective flows and counter-streaming flows, sheared polarity inversion lines form and flux ropes are created above.
Subsurface meridional flows from ring-diagram analysis showed a clear hemispheric asymmetry in last 18 years. Interestingly, this flow asymmetry leads the magnetic flux and sunspot number asymmetry by 3.1 – 3.6 years.
To minimize cross-talk effect from vertical flows and sound-speed perturbations, a new inversion code is developed to invert for flows and sound-speed perturbations simultaneously from time-distance travel-time measurements. The code is validated using numerical simulation data.
Ring-diagram analysis is applied on the HMI-observed sunspots of about 3 years. The attenuation of wave amplitudes near sunspots, rotational speed of sunspots, and subsurface flows around sunspots are discussed.
A newly discovered, fast-moving wave propagates outward along sunspots’ radial direction and may provide new diagnostics of the sunspot subsurface structure.