Solar low- p-mode damping by MHD turbulence

National Astronomical Observatories/Yunnan Observatory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650011, PR China e-mail: bislan@public.km.yn.cn

Received: 3 September 2004
Accepted: 25 October 2004

Abstract

The linewidths of solar p-mode oscillations are known to change over a solar cycle. In this paper we adopt a simple model of time-dependent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the solar convective zone to examine the effects of a fluctuating magnetic field on damping of solar low- p-modes, and find that the damping due to the magnetic perturbation increases with the strength of magnetic fields, and that its temporal behavior closely follows the phase of the synthetic solar activity cycle. The results confirm a variation of the damping between the minimum and the maximum of solar activity cycle. Our analysis indicates that the linewidths of modes are sensitive to the effect of turbulent magnetic fields, and might be used as a potential tool for probing the structure and dynamic changes inside the Sun.