Search

Aims. We investigate the asteroseismology of two solar-like targets as observed with the CoRoT satellite, with particular attention paid to the mode fitting. HD 181420 and HD 49933 are typical CoRoT solar-like targets (156 and 60-day runs). The low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of about $3{-}10$prevents us from unambiguously identifying the individual oscillation modes. In particular, convergence problems appear at the edges of the oscillation spectrum.

Context. The CoRoT short runs give us the opportunity to observe a large variety of late-type stars through their solar-like oscillations. We report observations of the star HD 175726 that lasted for 27 days during the first short run of the mission. The time series reveals a high-activity signal and the power spectrum presents an excess due to solar-like oscillations with a low signal-to-noise ratio.

Context. The estimate of solar-like oscillation properties, such as their frequencies, amplitudes and lifetimes, is challenging because of their low amplitudes and will benefit from long and uninterrupted observing runs. The space telescope CoRoT allows us to obtain high-performance photometric data over a long and quasi continuous period. Among its main targets are stars for which we expect solar-like oscillations.

Context. CoRoT is a space telescope dedicated to stellar seismology and the search for extrasolar planets. The mission is led by the CNES in association with French laboratories and has a large international participation. The European Space Agency (ESA), Austria, Belgium, and Germany contribute to the payload, and Spain and Brazil contribute to the ground segment. Development of the spacecraft, which is based on a PROTEUS low earth orbit (LEO) recurrent platform, commenced in October 2000, and the satellite was launched on December 27, 2006.

Context. Local-box hydrodynamical model atmospheres provide statistical information about a star's emergent radiation field which allows one to predict the level of its granulation-related micro-variability. Space-based photometry is now sufficiently accurate to test model predictions.

Context. The F8 star HD 181906 (effective temperature ${\sim}6300$K) was observed for 156 days by the CoRoT satellite during the first long run in the direction of the galactic centre. Analysis of the data reveals a spectrum of solar-like acoustic oscillations. However, the faintness of the target (mv= 7.65) means the signal-to-noise (S/N) in the acoustic modes is quite low, and this low S/N leads to complications in the analysis.

Context. The space experiment CoRoT has recently detected transits by a hot Jupiter across the disc of an active G7V star (CoRoT-Exo-2a) that can be considered as a good proxy for the Sun at an age of approximately 0.5 Gyr.

Context. The first asteroseismology results from CoRoT are presented, on a star showing Sun-like oscillations. We have analyzed a 60 day lightcurve of high-quality photometric data collected by CoRoT on the F5 V star HD 49933. The data reveal a rich spectrum of overtones of low-degree p modes.

Context.Photometry of Procyon obtained by the MOST satellite in 2004 has been searched for p modes by several groups, with sometimes contradictory interpretations.

Aims.Long-lived stellar oscillation modes are usually detected using Fourier transforms of time series of stellar radial velocities or brightness. It is commonly thought that one could use the cross spectrum of the two signals, or alternatively use the interleaved series of a single signal, to considerably improve the detection level by reducing the noise level.

The Global Oscillation at Low Frequencies (GOLF) experiment is a resonant scattering spectrophotometer on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) mission, originally designed to measure the disk-integrated solar oscillations of the Sun. This instrument was designed in a relative photometric mode involving both wings of the neutral sodium doublet (D1at λ5896 and D2at λ5890 Å). However, a “one-wing” photometric mode has been selected to ensure 100% continuity in the measurements after a problem in the polarization mechanisms. Thus the velocity is obtained from only two points on the same wing of the lines. This operating configuration imposes tighter constraints on the stability of the instrument with a higher sensitivity to instrumental variations. In this paper we discuss the evolution of the instrument during the last 8 years in space and the corrections applied to the measured counting rates due to known instrumental effects. We also describe a scaling procedure to obtain the variation of the Doppler velocity based on our knowledge of the sodium profile slope and we compare it to previous velocity estimations.

Acoustic rates of excitation of solar pmodes can be estimated from observations in order to place constraints on the modelling of the excitation process and the layers where it occurs in the star. For several reasons (including a poor signal to noise ratio and mode overlap), this estimation is difficult. In this work, we use three completely independent datasets to obtain robust estimates in the solar case for $\ell=1$modes. We also show that the height in the solar atmosphere where the modes are observed must be taken into account. Our three sets of results are shown to be consistent, particularly in the lower part of the p-mode spectrum (from 1.8 mHz to 2.8 mHz). At higher frequencies, the agreement is not as good, because of a larger dispersion of the measurements and also because of some systematic differences which might be due to observation height estimation or to a systematic influence of the noise.

With over 5 years of GOLF data having some 90% continuity, a new attempt has been made to search for possible solar gmodes. Statistical methods are used, based on the minimum of assumptions regarding the solar physics; namely that mode line-widths are small compared with the inverse of the observing time, and that modes are sought in the frequency interval 150 to 400 μHz. A number of simulations are carried out in order to understand the expected behaviour of a system consisting principally of a solar noise continuum overlaid with some weak sharp resonances. The method adopted is based on the FFT analysis of a time series with zero-padding by a factor of 5. One prominent resonance at 284.666 μHz coincides with a previous tentative assignment as one member of an $n=1$, $l=1$, p-mode multiplet. Components of two multiplets, previously tentatively identified as possible g-mode candidates from the GOLF data in 1998, continue to be found, although their statistical significance is shown to be insufficient, within the present assumption regarding the nature of the signal. An upper limit to the amplitude of any gmode present is calculated using two different statistical approaches, according to either the assumed absence (H0 hypothesis) or the assumed presence (H1 hypothesis) of a signal. The former yields a slightly lower limit of around 6 mm/s.

Parallels are drawn between the asymmetric resonance profiles observed in global helioseismology and the Fano theory for autoionisation profiles in atomic spectroscopy. We show that the underlying physics of the interaction of a discrete resonance with a correlated continuum is common to both systems. The approximate formula normally used for fitting to profiles in helioseismology is essentially similar to that developed for atomic spectroscopy by Fano. We propose that the two systems are in reality equivalent. This proposition enables us to understand better which resonances in helioseismology will be correlated with each other and with which solar background "continua". We also question whether the two interacting influences of excitation sourcesand correlated solar background, are really separate independent processes.

Context. The CoRoT short runs give us the opportunity to observe a large variety of late-type stars through their solar-like oscillations. We report observations of the star HD?175726 that lasted for 27?days during the first short run of the mission. The time series reveals a high-activity signal and the power spectrum presents an excess due to solar-like oscillations with a low signal-to-noise ratio.Aims. Our aim is to identify the most efficient tools to extract as much information as possible from the power density spectrum.Methods. The most productive method appears to be the autocorrelation of the time series, calculated as the spectrum of the filtered spectrum. This method is efficient, very rapid computationally, and will be useful for the analysis of other targets, observed with CoRoT or with forthcoming missions such as Kepler and Plato.Results. The mean large separation has been measured to be 97.2?0.5???Hz, slightly below the expected value determined from solar scaling laws. We also show strong evidence for variation of the large separation with frequency. The bolometric mode amplitude is only 1.7?0.25?ppm for radial modes, which is 1.7?times less than expected. Due to the low signal-to-noise ratio, mode identification is not possible for the available data set of HD?175726.

The PICARD mission is a CNES micro-satellite to be launched in 2009. Its goal is to better understand the Sun and the potential impact of its activity on earth climate by measuring simultaneously the solar total and spectral irradiance, diameter, shape and oscillations. We present the scientific objectives, instrumental requirements and data products of the helioseismology program of PICARD which aims to observe the low to medium lp-mode oscillations in intensity and search for g-mode oscillation signatures at the limb. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

After 8 months of nearly continuous measurements the GOLF instrument, aboard SOHO, has detected acoustic mode frequencies of more than 100 modes, extending from 1.4 mHz to 4.9 mHz. In this paper, we compare these results with the best available predictions coming from solar models. To verify the quality of the data, we examine the asymptotic seismic parameters; this confirms the improvements achieved in solar models during the last decade. Using the GOLF set of frequencies for l=0, 1, 2, 3 combined with the LOWL second year data set for l > 3 we then carry out inversions to infer properties of the solar core. This largely confirms the previous results down to around 0.1 R⊙, while there remain differences, even closer to the centre, where the present study shows an extreme sensitivity of the inversion results to the values of the frequencies. We finally consider physical processes which may influence directly or indirectly the solar core structure.

GOLF in-flight commissioning and calibration was carried out during the first four months, most of which represented the cruise phase of SOHO towards its final L1 orbit. The initial performance of GOLF is shown to be within the design specification, for the entire instrument as well as for the separate sub-systems. Malfunctioning of the polarising mechanisms after 3 to 4 months operation has led to the adoption of an unplanned operating sequence in which these mechanisms are no longer used. This mode, which measures only the blue wing of the solar sodium lines, detracts little from the detection and frequency measurements of global oscillations, but does make more difficult the absolute velocity calibration, which is currently of the order of 20%. Data continuity in the new mode is extremely high and the instrument is producing exceptionally noise-free p-mode spectra. The data set is particularly well suited to the study of effects due to the excitation mechanism of the modes, leading to temporal variations in their amplitudes. The g modes have not yet been detected in this limited data set. In the present mode of operation, there are no indications of any degradation which would limit the use of GOLF for up to 6 years or more.

The GOLF experiment on the SOHO mission aims to study the internal structure of the Sun by measuring the spectrum of global oscillations in the frequency range 10-7to 10-2Hz. Here we present the results of the analysis of the first 8 months of data. Special emphasis is put into the frequency determination of the p modes, as well as the splitting in the multiplets due to rotation. For both, we show that the improvement in S/N level with respect to the ground-based networks and other experiments is essential in achieving a very low-degree frequency table with small errors ∼ 2 parts in 10-5). On the other hand, the splitting found seems to favour a solar core which does not rotate slower than its surface. The line widths do agree with theoretical expectations and other observations.

GOLF (Global Oscillations at Low Frequencies) is an instrument to study the line-of-sight velocity of the solar photosphere, to be flown on the SOHO satellite in 1995. It uses a sodium vapour cell in resonance scattering mode, in order to measure the absolute Doppler shift of the solar sodium absorption lines. We detail laboratory tests to determine the performances of the cell built for the experiment. The results are in good agreement with numerical simulations of the resonance processes. As a final result, we can conclude that the level of performances required for the flight instrument will be obtained.

GOLF (Global Oscillations at Low Frequencies) is an instrument to study the line-of-sight velocity of the solar photosphere, to be flown on the SOHO satellite in 1995. It uses a sodium vapour cell in resonance scattering mode, in order to measure the absolute Doppler shift of the solar sodium absorption lines. We have developed a model of the resonance cell performance. We describe here the main characteristics of the model, and report the most important results concerning the performance of the cell and its dependance on temperature.

The GOLF experiment on the SOHO mission aims to study the internal structure of the sun by measuring the spectrum of global oscillations in the frequency range 10-7 to 10-2 Hz. Bothp andg mode oscillations will be investigated, with the emphasis on the low order long period waves which penetrate the solar core. The instrument employs an extension to space of the proven ground-based technique for measuring the mean line-of-sight velocity of the viewed solar surface. By avoiding the atmospheric disturbances experienced from the ground, and choosing a non-eclipsing orbit, GOLF aims to improve the instrumental sensitivity limit by an order of magnitude to 1 mm s-1 over 20 days for frequencies higher than 2.10-4 Hz. A sodium vapour resonance cell is used in a longitudinal magnetic field to sample the two wings of the solar absorption line. The addition of a small modulating field component enables the slope of the wings to be measured. This provides not only an internal calibration of the instrument sensitivity, but also offers a further possibility to recognise, and correct for, the solar background signal produced by the effects of solar magnetically active regions. The use of an additional rotating polariser enables measurement of the mean solar line-of-sight magnetic field, as a secondary objective.

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Context. The star HD 49385 is the first G-type solar-like pulsator observed in the seismology field of the space telescope CoRoT. The satellite collected 137 days of high-precision photometric data on this star, confirming that it presents solar-like oscillations. HD 49385 was also observed in spectroscopy with the NARVAL spectrograph in January 2009.Aims. Our goal is to characterize HD 49385 using both spectroscopic and seismic data.Methods. The fundamental stellar parameters of HD 49385 are derived with the semi-automatic software VWA, and the projected rotational velocity is estimated by fitting synthetic profiles to isolated lines in the observed spectrum. A maximum likelihood estimation is used to determine the parameters of the observed p modes. We perform a global fit, in which modes are fitted simultaneously over nine radial orders, with degrees ranging from $\ell$= 0 to $\ell$= 3 (36 individual modes).Results. Precise estimates of the atmospheric parameters (Teff, [M/H], log g) and of the νsin iof HD 49385 are obtained. The seismic analysis of the star leads to a clear identification of the modes for degrees $\ell$= 0,1,2. Around the maximum of the signal (ν$\simeq$1013 μHz), some peaks are found significant and compatible with the expected characteristics of $\ell$= 3 modes. Our fit yields robust estimates of the frequencies, linewidths and amplitudes of the modes. We find amplitudes of ~5.6 ±0.8 ppm for radial modes at the maximum of the signal. The lifetimes of the modes range from one day (at high frequency) to a bit more than two days (at low frequency). Significant peaks are found outside the identified ridges and are fitted. They are attributed to mixed modes.

Context. The star HD 49385 is the first G-type solar-like pulsator observed in the seismology field of the space telescope CoRoT. The satellite collected 137 days of high-precision photometric data on this star, confirming that it presents solar-like oscillations. HD 49385 was also observed in spectroscopy with the NARVAL spectrograph in January 2009.