The First Seismic Images of the Solar Interior and Far Side from the GONG+ Network

FOR RELEASE: 2:00 PM MDT, June 6, 2002

Images of the far side and interior of the Sun obtained from a network of solar telescopes were presented today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by Douglas Braun of NorthWest Research Associates Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, and Charles Lindsey of the Solar Physics Research Corp. in Tucson, Arizona.

The achievement marks the first time that Earth-based observations have been used to image the solar far side. Scientists will use the new capability to develop better tools to predict solar storms...

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Images:

Thumbnail	Higher quality Image	Caption
	gif (102Kb) postscript (201Kb)	A comparison of seismic images of the solar far side made from two different sets of data. The top image was made using data from the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The image on the bottom was derived from observations from the National Science Foundatation's Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG+). The dark patches indicate solar active regions. This material was presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 6, 2002.
	gif (163Kb) postscript (254Kb)	The first seismic image made of the subsurface of an active region on the Sun with GONG+ data. The redder regions indicate where sound waves propagate faster and the arrows show the direction of gas flows. This material was presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 6, 2002.
	gif still image(13Kb) QuickTime movie(414Kb) MPEG movie(1.7 Mb)	Animations showing a cut-away of the interior of the Sun with sound waves used to image active regions on the far surface. Helioseismic holography is a highly efficient and flexible tool with a wide range of utility, from mapping sound wave travel times over the entire far solar hemisphere to imaging small scale flows beneath solar active regions.

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Acknowledgements:

This work is supported by the Stellar Astronomy and Astrophysics Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Sun Earth Connection/Living with a Star program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The GONG project is managed by the National Solar Observatory, which is operated by the Associated Universities for Research In Astronomy, Inc. under a cooperative agreement with the NSF. SOHO is a cooperative project between the European Space Agency and NASA.