[an error occurred while processing this directive] Solar Corrugation
Solar Corrugation


SoHO and the Solar Oscillations Imager Experiment Measure Tiny Changes in the Shape of the Sun

Jeffrey R. Kuhn (National Solar Observatory/Michigan State University), Rock Bush (Stanford), Rick Bogart (Stanford), Luiz Sa (Stanford), Xania Scheick (Jackson Community College, MI), Phil Scherrer (Stanford).

From the constant environment of space, the SOHO/MDI experiment provides researchers with the longest series of finely detailed electronic images of the sun we have ever obtained. Because the spacecraft is above the blurring effects of the atmosphere, and with the help of sophisticated computer analysis, it is possible to measure exceedingly small changes in the shape of the sun. These changes are caused by "oscillations" analogous to terrestrial earthquakes. Other ground measurements have observed such oscillations before, but never have we been able to actually detect the shape of the sun fluctuate because of these sound waves. The SOHO/MDI experiment is able to detect the edge of the sun move by about 10 feet. This sensitivity is equivalent to measuring the size of a quarter placed at the edge of the moon as seen from the surface of the earth.

By observing the sun as it rotates, the MDI experiment has also revealed that the solar surface is "corrugated." its surface is covered with hills and valleys about 5 times the diameter of the earth in lateral size, but with a height of only about 1/2 kilometer. Although the sun is gaseous, and has no solid surface, these hills and valleys of hot gas rotate with the average 27 day solar surface rotation rate. They are probably caused by a complex magnetic field "network" that threads through the visible surface of the sun. The accompanying figure (above and postscript version shows how these solar "mountains" might look if they were magnified in height 10 Million times.


  SOHO SOI/MDI Results.

  The SOI Main Page.


Last Modified by Amara Graps, SOI, on 14 February 1997.