Does the energy supplied to low-ℓ solar p modes vary over the activity cycle?

We report on the average behavior of the excitation and damping of low angular degree (low l) solar p-mode oscillations over the decade from 1991 to 2000 using both long and short time duration Fourier transforms. The data in question were collected by the ground-based Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network. Throughout most of the period under study, the energy supply rate to the modes remains roughly constant-implying a near-constant level of forcing-while the damping and velocity power show a fairly smooth increase and decrease, respectively, in response to increasing levels of solar activity (in line with previous findings). However, here we uncover evidence of there being a sharp increase in the mode velocity power over a brief period of approximately 100 days centered on 1998 late March. The magnitude and sign of this are contrary to the expectation based on the long-timescale, solar-cycle trend; such unusual behavior is absent in the damping. This implies that the forcing of, or rate of energy supplied to, the modes increased in magnitude over this period.