Structural Tilting and Depth-Dependent Behavior of Equatorial Rossby Waves

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Vesa, Oana, Zhao, Junwei, Chen, Ruizhu
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Vesa, Oana
Zhao, Junwei
Chen, Ruizhu
author_facet Vesa, Oana
Zhao, Junwei
Chen, Ruizhu
contents Over the past decade, solar equatorial Rossby waves have been unambiguously identified and are considered potential diagnostics of solar interior dynamics. We investigate their inclined structure and temporal evolution in the solar interior across multiple depths using approximately 14.5 yr of ring-diagram (RD) and time-distance (TD) helioseismology data from SDO/HMI. Normalized phase differences and cross power are computed from filtered spherical harmonic coefficients of radial vorticity to probe the structural tilt and power of Rossby waves. We find a systematic and robust depth-dependent phase behavior that shows no clear significant correlation with the solar cycle, while the depth-dependent cross power exhibits a positive correlation with the solar cycle for both datasets. Our results show that deeper depths lead in phase over shallower ones, with increasing negative phases with depth. We infer that Rossby waves exhibit a retrograde tilt relative to the Sun's rotation that is stable throughout the solar cycle. Analogous small tilts have been noted in planetary atmospheres and in magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the Sun, indicating that this behavior is not uncommon in rotating, stratified bodies and has implications for angular momentum and energy transport in the solar interior.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_05443
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Structural Tilting and Depth-Dependent Behavior of Equatorial Rossby Waves
Vesa, Oana
Zhao, Junwei
Chen, Ruizhu
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Over the past decade, solar equatorial Rossby waves have been unambiguously identified and are considered potential diagnostics of solar interior dynamics. We investigate their inclined structure and temporal evolution in the solar interior across multiple depths using approximately 14.5 yr of ring-diagram (RD) and time-distance (TD) helioseismology data from SDO/HMI. Normalized phase differences and cross power are computed from filtered spherical harmonic coefficients of radial vorticity to probe the structural tilt and power of Rossby waves. We find a systematic and robust depth-dependent phase behavior that shows no clear significant correlation with the solar cycle, while the depth-dependent cross power exhibits a positive correlation with the solar cycle for both datasets. Our results show that deeper depths lead in phase over shallower ones, with increasing negative phases with depth. We infer that Rossby waves exhibit a retrograde tilt relative to the Sun's rotation that is stable throughout the solar cycle. Analogous small tilts have been noted in planetary atmospheres and in magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the Sun, indicating that this behavior is not uncommon in rotating, stratified bodies and has implications for angular momentum and energy transport in the solar interior.
title Structural Tilting and Depth-Dependent Behavior of Equatorial Rossby Waves
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05443