Testing volume integrals of travel-time sensitivity kernels for flows

Abstract

Context: Helioseismic inversions rely largely on sensitivity kernels, 3-D spatial functions describing how do the changes in the solar interior translate into the changes of helioseismic observables. These sensitivity kernels come in most cases from the forward modelling utilising state-of-the-art solar models. Aims: We aim to test the sensitivity kernels by comparing their volume integrals with measured values from helioseismic travel times. Methods: By manipulating the tracking rate, we mimic the additional zonal velocity present in the Dopplergram datacubes. These datacubes are then processed by a standard travel-time measurements pipeline. We investigate the dependence of the east--west travel time averaged over a box around the disc centre on the implanted tracking velocity. The slope of this dependence is directly proportional to the total volume integral of the sensitivity kernel corresponding to the used travel-time geometry. Results: We find a very good to acceptable agreement between measurements and models for travel times with ridge filtering applied. The sought dependence indeed resembles a linear function and the slope of it agrees with the expected volume integral from the forward-modelled sensitivity kernel. The agreement is less optimistic for the phase-speed filtered datacubes. A disagreement is particularly large for smallest phase speeds (filters td1--td4), for the larger phase speeds, our result indicate that the measured kernel integrals are systematically larger than expected from the forward modelling. We admit that for large phase-speeds and higher radial modes our testing procedure does not have to be appropriate.

Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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