The Magnetic Connectivity of Moss Regions

A novel emission feature resembling moss was first identified in high-resolution TRACE Feix/x 171 Å images by Berger et al. (1999). The moss emission is characterized by dynamic arc-second scale, bright elements surrounding dark inclusions in images of solar active regions. Patches of moss elements, called moss regions, have a scale of 20–30 Mm. Moss regions occur only above some of magnetic plages that underlie soft X-ray coronal loops. Using the potential field extrapolation of the photospheric magnetic field into the corona, we find that the magnetic field lines in moss-associated magnetic plages connect with adjacent plages with opposite polarity; however, all field lines from mossless plages end in surrounding quiet regions. This result is consistent with the idea that the TRACE moss is the emission from the upper transition region due to heating of low-lying plasma by field-aligned thermal conduction from overlying hot plasma (Berger et al., 1999).     

Structure and Dynamics of Interconnecting Loops and Coronal Holes in Active Longitudes

Using SOHO/MDI and SOHO/EIT data we study properties and dynamics of interconnected active regions, and the relations between the photospheric magnetic fields and coronal structures in active longitudes during the beginning of solar cycle 23. The emergence of new magnetic flux results in appearance of new interconnecting loops. The existence of stable coronal structures strongly depends on the photospheric magnetic fluxes and their variations. We present some initial results for a complex of solar activity observed in April 1997, and discuss the role of reconnection in the formation of the interconnected loops and coronal holes.     

“Hare and Hounds” Tests of Helioseismic Holography

We use the output of numerical wave-propagation simulations as synthetic data for “hare and hounds” tests of helioseismic holography. In the simple non-magnetic models examined here, we show that when the inversion method includes a consistent treatment of the filtering applied during the data analysis the inversions for the subsurface sound speed are qualitatively correct.     

Highly localised distribution patterns of juvenile sea cucumber Australostichopus mollis

Information on the environmental characteristics of the juvenile habitat of many deposit-feeding sea cucumber species is limited, despite most fished species exhibiting rapid localised depletion. The current study combined large and small scale surveying techniques within a New Zealand harbour to identify areas with high densities of juvenile Australostichopus mollis, a commercially valuable aspidochirote holothurian. Data from detailed surveys were used to relate densities of juveniles and adults with measures of physical habitat characteristics including depth, sediment facies type, grain size range, as well as measures of chlorophyll-a, phaeopigment, carbon and nitrogen content of surface sediment. Results revealed a highly localised distribution of juvenile A. mollis focused on one site associated with an area of high adult density. Sites of high juvenile A. mollis density were characterised by sediment qualities favouring epibenthic detritivorous deposit feeding, including high nitrogen content, high phaeopigment:chlorophyll-a ratio and small grain size. The high-density juvenile site had facies that were further characterised by the presence of large shell fragments (>10 cm length) of the horse mussel (Atrina zelandica), which may provide a unique settlement microhabitat for early juveniles. Unlike some other sea cucumber species, juvenile A. mollis shows no distinct spatial separation from adult sea cucumbers, no association with dense macroalgae and no clear preference for shallower depths than adults. Overall, the results illustrate the highly localised pattern of recruitment of this species to a widely distributed adult population, which may help to explain the lack of previous observations of juveniles in this species. These results indicate the importance of identifying and protecting what appear to be very specific juvenile habitats in deposit-feeding sea cucumbers to ensure continuing recruitment to exploited populations.     

DNA identification of the phyllosoma diet of Jasus edwardsii and Scyllarus sp. Z

The development of an effective artificial larval diet has been a major stumbling block for advancing the aquaculture of spiny lobsters internationally. Attempts to determine the natural diet of spiny lobster larvae have been impeded by their small size and sparse distribution in the open ocean, making these larvae difficult to study using conventional methods. Recent advances in molecular genetic techniques have provided a novel route for identifying the natural prey of spiny lobster larvae (phyllosoma). In this study, sequences from zooplankton found associated with phyllosomas, along with sequences from GenBank, were used to design a suite of group-specific primers. These primers were able to amplify via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a short (100–200 base pair) DNA fragment from the 16S or COI locus of potential prey but not from lobster. These methods were applied to four wild-caught phyllosomas of Jasus edwardsii and two phyllosomas of Scyllarus sp. Z. Gadiforme, Cnidaria, Gastropoda and Decapoda crustacean (non-lobster) DNA sequences were obtained from the gut contents of these lobster larvae and inferred as prey. These initial results confirm previous studies using other less definitive methods which have indicated that phyllosomas are opportunistic predators of a wide range of zooplankton taxa.     

Tri-Phonic Helioseismology: Comparison of Solar p Modes Observed by the Helioseismology Instruments Aboard SOHO

The three helioseismology instruments aboard SOHO observe solar p modes in velocity (GOLF and MDI) and in intensity (VIRGO and MDI). Time series of two months duration are compared and confirm that the instruments indeed observe the same Sun to a high degree of precision. Power spectra of 108 days are compared showing systematic differences between mode frequencies measured in intensity and in velocity. Data coverage exceeds 97% for all the instruments during this interval. The weighted mean differences (V-I) are −0.1 μHz for l=0, and −0.16 μHz for l=1. The source of this systematic difference may be due to an asymmetry effect that is stronger for modes seen in intensity. Wavelet analysis is also used to compare the shape of the forcing functions. In these data sets nearly all of the variations in mode amplitude are of solar origin. Some implications for structure inversions are discussed.     

Measurements of Frequencies of Solar Oscillations from the Mdi Medium-l Program

Inversions of solar internal structure employ both the frequencies and the associated uncertainties of the solar oscillation modes as input parameters. In this paper we investigate how systematic errors in these input parameters may affect the resulting inferences of the sun's internal structure. Such systematic errors are likely to arise from inaccuracies in the theoretical models which are used to represent the spectral lines in the observational power spectra, from line blending, from asymmetries in the profiles of these lines, and from other factors. In order to study such systematic effects we have employed two different duration observing runs (one of 60 days and the second of 144 days) obtained with the Medium-l Program of the Michelson Doppler Imager experiment onboard the SOHO spacecraft. This observing program provides continuous observations of solar oscillation modes having angular degrees, l, ranging from 0 to ∼ 300. For this study intermediate- and high-degree p-mode oscillations having degrees less than 251 were employed. In the first of our tests we employed two different methods of estimating the modal frequencies and their associated uncertainties from the 144-day observational power spectra. In our second test we also repeated both methods of frequency estimation on the 60-day time series in order to assess the influence of the duration of the observed time series on the computed frequencies and uncertainties. In a third test we investigated the sensitivity of the computed frequencies to the choice of initial-guess, or ‘seed’ frequencies that are used in the frequency estimation codes. In a fourth test we attempted to investigate the possible systematic frequency errors which are introduced when the observational asymmetry in the p-mode peaks is ignored. We carried out this particular test by fitting simple models of asymmetric line profiles to the peaks in the observational power spectra. We were then able to compute the differences between those frequencies and our previous frequencies which had been obtained using the assumption that all of the observational peaks were symmetric in shape. In order to study the possible influence of the two different frequency estimation methods upon the radial profile of the internal sound speed, we carried out four parallel structural inversions using the different sets and subsets of frequency estimates and uncertainties as computed from the 144-day observing run as inputs. The results of these four inversions confirm the previous finding by the GONG project (Gough et al., 1996) and by the MDI Medium-l Program (Kosovichev et al., 1997) that, in a thin layer just beneath the convection zone, helium appears to be less abundant than predicted by theory. However, differences in our four inverted radial sound speed profiles demonstrate that the currently-available techniques for determining the frequencies of the Medium-l oscillation peaks introduce systematic errors which are large enough to affect the results of the structural inversions. Moreover, based upon the differences in these four inverted sound speed profiles, it appears that the choice of which subset of modes is included in a particular inversion and which modes are not included may also be introducing systematic errors into our current understanding of solar internal structure. Hence, it appears to be very important that consistent sets of modal selection criteria be employed. Finally, at least one of the two frequency estimation codes which we used was not sensitive to changes in the input ‘seed’ frequencies which were employed as initial guesses for that code. This result allays fears that the difference in the helium abundance between the sun and the reference solar model in the thin layer beneath the convection zone which was mentioned above might have been due to the particular seed frequencies which were employed in the earlier inversions. Since this thin layer may likely be the place where the solar dynamo operates, it will be extremely important to observe any possible evolution of this transition layer throughout the upcoming 11-year activity cycle. Supplementary material to this paper is available in electronic form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1004963425123     

Properties of Flares-Generated Seismic Waves on the Sun

The purpose of this article is to carry out a power-spectrum analysis of the Super-Kamiokande five-day dataset that takes account of the asymmetry in the error estimates. Whereas for symmetrical error estimates the likelihood analysis involves a linear optimization procedure, for asymmetrical error estimates it involves a nonlinear optimization procedure. For most frequencies there is little difference between the power spectra derived from analyses of symmetrized error estimates and from asymmetrical error estimates, but this is not the case for the principal peak in the power spectrum at 9.43 yr ⁻¹. A likelihood analysis that takes account of the error asymmetry leads to a peak with power 13.24 at that frequency, and a Monte Carlo analysis shows that there is a chance of only 0.1% of finding a peak this big or bigger in the search band 1 – 36 yr ⁻¹. From this perspective, power-spectrum analysis that takes account of asymmetry of the error estimates gives evidence for variability that is significant at the 99.9% level. We comment briefly on an apparent discrepancy between power-spectrum analyses of the Super-Kamiokande and SNO solar neutrino experiments.     

Implementation and Comparison of Acoustic Travel-Time Measurement Procedures for the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager Time?–?Distance Helioseismology Pipeline

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite is designed to produce high-resolution Doppler-velocity maps of oscillations at the solar surface with high temporal cadence. To take advantage of these high-quality oscillation data, a?time?–?distance helioseismology pipeline (Zhao et al., Solar Phys. submitted, 2010) has been implemented at the Joint Science Operations Center (JSOC) at Stanford University. The aim of this pipeline is to generate maps of acoustic travel times from oscillations on the solar surface, and to infer subsurface 3D flow velocities and sound-speed perturbations. The wave travel times are measured from cross-covariances of the observed solar oscillation signals. For implementation into the pipeline we have investigated three different travel-time definitions developed in time?–?distance helioseismology: a Gabor-wavelet fitting (Kosovichev and Duvall, SCORE’96: Solar Convection and Oscillations and Their Relationship, ASSL, Dordrecht, 241, 1997), a?minimization relative to a reference cross-covariance function (Gizon and Birch, Astrophys. J. 571, 966, 2002), and a linearized version of the minimization method (Gizon and Birch, Astrophys. J. 614, 472, 2004). Using Doppler-velocity data from the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument onboard SOHO, we tested and compared these definitions for the mean and difference travel-time perturbations measured from reciprocal signals. Although all three procedures return similar travel times in a quiet-Sun region, the method of Gizon and Birch (Astrophys. J. 614, 472, 2004) gives travel times that are significantly different from the others in a magnetic (active) region. Thus, for the pipeline implementation we chose the procedures of Kosovichev and Duvall (SCORE’96: Solar Convection and Oscillations and Their Relationship, ASSL, Dordrecht, 241, 1997) and Gizon and Birch (Astrophys. J. 571, 966, 2002). We investigated the relationships among these three travel-time definitions, their sensitivities to fitting parameters, and estimated the random errors that they produce.     

Numerical Simulations of Oscillation Modes of the Solar Convection Zone

The ACIS front-illuminated CCDs on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory were damaged in the extreme environment of the Earth's radiation belts, resulting in enhanced charge transfer inefficiency (CTI). This produces a row dependence in gain, event grade, and energy resolution. We model the CTI as a function of input photon energy, including the effects of detrapping (charge trailing), shielding within an event (charge in the leading pixels of the 3x3 event island protects the rest of the island by filling traps), and nonuniform spatial distribution of traps. This technique cannot fully recover the degraded energy resolution, but it reduces the position dependence of gain and grade distributions. By correcting the grade distributions as well as the event amplitudes, we can improve the instrument's quantum efficiency. We outline our model for CTI correction and discuss how the corrector can improve astrophysical results derived from ACIS data.