Excitation and damping of low-degree solar p-modes during activity cycle 23: analysis of GOLF and VIRGO/SPM data

We have used observations made by the Global Oscillations at Low Frequency ( GOLF) and the Variability of Irradiance and Gravity Oscillations Sun Photometer (VIRGO/SPM) instruments on board the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite to study variations in the excitation and damping of low angular degree (low-l) solar p-modes on the rising phase of activity cycle 23. Our analysis includes a correction procedure that for the first time allows GOLF data to be "treated" as a single homogeneous set, thereby compensating for the change of operational configuration partway through the mission. Over the range 2.5 less than or equal to v less than or equal to 3.5 mHz, we uncover an increase in damping and decrease in mode power that is consistent with previous findings. Furthermore, an excellent level of agreement is found between the variations extracted from the GOLF and VIRGO/SPM data. We find no net long-term changes to the modal energy supply rate. However, an analysis of the residuals uncovers the presence of a quasi-periodic signature of period approximate to1.5 yr ( most pronounced for SPM). While it is true that several workers claim to have uncovered similar periodicities in other phenomena related to the near-surface layers of the Sun here, we are at present more inclined to attribute our finding to an artifact of the mode-fitting procedure. We also uncover a significant change in the asymmetry of mode peaks in the GOLF data, as found in previous studies of much longer data sets. These assumed that the dominant contribution to this arose from the switch in operating configuration partway through the mission (which altered the depth in the solar atmosphere sampled by the instrument). However, our preliminary analysis of data collected over the 100 day period beginning 2002 November 19 - when the instrument switched back to its original configuration - suggests that this change may have a solar cycle component.