The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity

Ben S. Lakeland; Tim Naylor; Raphaëlle Haywood; Nadège Meunier; Federica Rescigno; Shweta Dalal; Annelies Mortier; Samantha J. Thompson; Andrew Collier Cameron; Xavier Dumusque; Mercedes Lopez-morales; Francesco Pepe; Ken Rice; Alessandro Sozzetti; Stéphane Udry; Eric Ford; Adriano Ghedina; Marcello Lodi

doi:10.1093/mnras/stad3723

The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity

Ben S. Lakeland^*, Tim Naylor, Raphaëlle Haywood, Nadège Meunier, Federica Rescigno, Shweta Dalal, Annelies Mortier, Samantha J. Thompson, Andrew Collier Cameron, Xavier Dumusque, Mercedes Lopez-morales, Francesco Pepe, Ken Rice, Alessandro Sozzetti, Stéphane Udry, Eric Ford, Adriano Ghedina, Marcello Lodi

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics and Astronomy

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Abstract

Using images from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/HMI), we extract the radial-velocity (RV) signal arising from the suppression of convective blue-shift and from bright faculae and dark sunspots transiting the rotating solar disc. We remove these rotationally modulated magnetic-activity contributions from simultaneous radial velocities observed by the HARPS-N solar feed to produce a radial-velocity time series arising from the magnetically quiet solar surface (the ‘inactive-region radial velocities’). We find that the level of variability in the inactive-region radial velocities remains constant over the almost 7 year baseline and shows no correlation with well-known activity indicators. With an RMS of roughly 1 m s⁻¹, the inactive-region radial-velocity time series dominates the total RV variability budget during the decline of solar cycle 24. Finally, we compare the variability amplitude and timescale of the inactive-region radial velocities with simulations of supergranulation. We find consistency between the inactive-region radial-velocity and simulated time series, indicating that supergranulation is a significant contribution to the overall solar radial velocity variability, and may be the main source of variability towards solar minimum. This work highlights supergranulation as a key barrier to detecting Earth twins.

Original language	English
Article number	stad3723
Pages (from-to)	7681–7691
Number of pages	11
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	527
Early online date	1 Dec 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3723
Publication status	Published - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments:
We would like to thank Suzanne Aigrain and Niamh O’Sullivan for assisting in normalising the PSD of Fig. 2. B.S.L. is funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) studentship (ST/V506679/1). R.D.H. and S.D. are funded by the STFC’s Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (grant number ST/V004735/1). F.R. is funded by the University of Exeter’s College of Engineering, Maths and Physical Sciences, UK. S.J.T. is funded by STFC grant number ST/V000918/1. A.C.C. acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement SCORE No 851555). This work has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grants 51NF40_182901 and 51NF40_205606 F.P. would like to acknowledge the SNSF for supporting research with HARPS-N through the SNSF grants 140649, 152721, 166227, 184618 and 215190. The HARPS-N Instrument.

Project was partially funded through the Swiss ESA-PRODEX Programme. K.R. acknowledges support from STFC Consolidated grant number ST/V000594/1. This research was supported by Heising-Simons Foundation Grant #2019-1177 and NASA Grant # 80NSSC21K1035 (E.B.F.).This work was supported in part by a grant from the Simons Foundation/SFARI (675601, E.B.F.). The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by Penn State and its Eberly College of Science.

This work is based in part on observations at Kitt Peak National Observatory, NSF’s NOIRLab, managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The authors are honoured to be permitted to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Duág (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono Oódham.

Data presented herein were obtained at the WIYN Observatory from telescope time allocated to NN-EXPLORE through the scientific partnership of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

We thank the NEID Queue Observers and WIYN Observing Associates for their skillful execution of our NEID observations. In particular, we express gratitude to Michael Palumbo III for compiling the NEID RVs used in this study.

Keywords

Sun: granulation
techniques: radial velocity
methods: data analysis

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LakelandB2024MagneticallyFinal published version, 1.44 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

Lakeland, B. S., Naylor, T., Haywood, R., Meunier, N., Rescigno, F., Dalal, S., Mortier, A., Thompson, S. J., Cameron, A. C., Dumusque, X., Lopez-morales, M., Pepe, F., Rice, K., Sozzetti, A., Udry, S., Ford, E., Ghedina, A., & Lodi, M. (2024). The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 527, 7681–7691. Article stad3723. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3723

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title = "The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity",

abstract = "Using images from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/HMI), we extract the radial-velocity (RV) signal arising from the suppression of convective blue-shift and from bright faculae and dark sunspots transiting the rotating solar disc. We remove these rotationally modulated magnetic-activity contributions from simultaneous radial velocities observed by the HARPS-N solar feed to produce a radial-velocity time series arising from the magnetically quiet solar surface (the {\textquoteleft}inactive-region radial velocities{\textquoteright}). We find that the level of variability in the inactive-region radial velocities remains constant over the almost 7 year baseline and shows no correlation with well-known activity indicators. With an RMS of roughly 1 m s−1, the inactive-region radial-velocity time series dominates the total RV variability budget during the decline of solar cycle 24. Finally, we compare the variability amplitude and timescale of the inactive-region radial velocities with simulations of supergranulation. We find consistency between the inactive-region radial-velocity and simulated time series, indicating that supergranulation is a significant contribution to the overall solar radial velocity variability, and may be the main source of variability towards solar minimum. This work highlights supergranulation as a key barrier to detecting Earth twins.",

keywords = "Sun: granulation, techniques: radial velocity, methods: data analysis",

author = "Lakeland, {Ben S.} and Tim Naylor and Rapha{\"e}lle Haywood and Nad{\`e}ge Meunier and Federica Rescigno and Shweta Dalal and Annelies Mortier and Thompson, {Samantha J.} and Cameron, {Andrew Collier} and Xavier Dumusque and Mercedes Lopez-morales and Francesco Pepe and Ken Rice and Alessandro Sozzetti and St{\'e}phane Udry and Eric Ford and Adriano Ghedina and Marcello Lodi",

note = "Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Suzanne Aigrain and Niamh O{\textquoteright}Sullivan for assisting in normalising the PSD of Fig. 2. B.S.L. is funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) studentship (ST/V506679/1). R.D.H. and S.D. are funded by the STFC{\textquoteright}s Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (grant number ST/V004735/1). F.R. is funded by the University of Exeter{\textquoteright}s College of Engineering, Maths and Physical Sciences, UK. S.J.T. is funded by STFC grant number ST/V000918/1. A.C.C. acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement SCORE No 851555). This work has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grants 51NF40_182901 and 51NF40_205606 F.P. would like to acknowledge the SNSF for supporting research with HARPS-N through the SNSF grants 140649, 152721, 166227, 184618 and 215190. The HARPS-N Instrument. Project was partially funded through the Swiss ESA-PRODEX Programme. K.R. acknowledges support from STFC Consolidated grant number ST/V000594/1. This research was supported by Heising-Simons Foundation Grant #2019-1177 and NASA Grant # 80NSSC21K1035 (E.B.F.).This work was supported in part by a grant from the Simons Foundation/SFARI (675601, E.B.F.). The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by Penn State and its Eberly College of Science. This work is based in part on observations at Kitt Peak National Observatory, NSF{\textquoteright}s NOIRLab, managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The authors are honoured to be permitted to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du{\'a}g (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono O{\'o}dham. Data presented herein were obtained at the WIYN Observatory from telescope time allocated to NN-EXPLORE through the scientific partnership of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. We thank the NEID Queue Observers and WIYN Observing Associates for their skillful execution of our NEID observations. In particular, we express gratitude to Michael Palumbo III for compiling the NEID RVs used in this study. ",

year = "2024",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1093/mnras/stad3723",

language = "English",

volume = "527",

pages = "7681–7691",

journal = "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society",

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Lakeland, BS, Naylor, T, Haywood, R, Meunier, N, Rescigno, F, Dalal, S, Mortier, A, Thompson, SJ, Cameron, AC, Dumusque, X, Lopez-morales, M, Pepe, F, Rice, K, Sozzetti, A, Udry, S, Ford, E, Ghedina, A & Lodi, M 2024, 'The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 527, stad3723, pp. 7681–7691. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3723

TY - JOUR

T1 - The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity

AU - Lakeland, Ben S.

AU - Naylor, Tim

AU - Haywood, Raphaëlle

AU - Meunier, Nadège

AU - Rescigno, Federica

AU - Dalal, Shweta

AU - Mortier, Annelies

AU - Thompson, Samantha J.

AU - Cameron, Andrew Collier

AU - Dumusque, Xavier

AU - Lopez-morales, Mercedes

AU - Pepe, Francesco

AU - Rice, Ken

AU - Sozzetti, Alessandro

AU - Udry, Stéphane

AU - Ford, Eric

AU - Ghedina, Adriano

AU - Lodi, Marcello

N1 - Acknowledgments: We would like to thank Suzanne Aigrain and Niamh O’Sullivan for assisting in normalising the PSD of Fig. 2. B.S.L. is funded by a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) studentship (ST/V506679/1). R.D.H. and S.D. are funded by the STFC’s Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (grant number ST/V004735/1). F.R. is funded by the University of Exeter’s College of Engineering, Maths and Physical Sciences, UK. S.J.T. is funded by STFC grant number ST/V000918/1. A.C.C. acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/V000861/1, and UKSA grant number ST/R003203/1. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement SCORE No 851555). This work has been carried out within the framework of the NCCR PlanetS supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under grants 51NF40_182901 and 51NF40_205606 F.P. would like to acknowledge the SNSF for supporting research with HARPS-N through the SNSF grants 140649, 152721, 166227, 184618 and 215190. The HARPS-N Instrument. Project was partially funded through the Swiss ESA-PRODEX Programme. K.R. acknowledges support from STFC Consolidated grant number ST/V000594/1. This research was supported by Heising-Simons Foundation Grant #2019-1177 and NASA Grant # 80NSSC21K1035 (E.B.F.).This work was supported in part by a grant from the Simons Foundation/SFARI (675601, E.B.F.). The Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds is supported by Penn State and its Eberly College of Science. This work is based in part on observations at Kitt Peak National Observatory, NSF’s NOIRLab, managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. The authors are honoured to be permitted to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Duág (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to the Tohono Oódham. Data presented herein were obtained at the WIYN Observatory from telescope time allocated to NN-EXPLORE through the scientific partnership of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. We thank the NEID Queue Observers and WIYN Observing Associates for their skillful execution of our NEID observations. In particular, we express gratitude to Michael Palumbo III for compiling the NEID RVs used in this study.

PY - 2024/1

Y1 - 2024/1

N2 - Using images from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/HMI), we extract the radial-velocity (RV) signal arising from the suppression of convective blue-shift and from bright faculae and dark sunspots transiting the rotating solar disc. We remove these rotationally modulated magnetic-activity contributions from simultaneous radial velocities observed by the HARPS-N solar feed to produce a radial-velocity time series arising from the magnetically quiet solar surface (the ‘inactive-region radial velocities’). We find that the level of variability in the inactive-region radial velocities remains constant over the almost 7 year baseline and shows no correlation with well-known activity indicators. With an RMS of roughly 1 m s−1, the inactive-region radial-velocity time series dominates the total RV variability budget during the decline of solar cycle 24. Finally, we compare the variability amplitude and timescale of the inactive-region radial velocities with simulations of supergranulation. We find consistency between the inactive-region radial-velocity and simulated time series, indicating that supergranulation is a significant contribution to the overall solar radial velocity variability, and may be the main source of variability towards solar minimum. This work highlights supergranulation as a key barrier to detecting Earth twins.

AB - Using images from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/HMI), we extract the radial-velocity (RV) signal arising from the suppression of convective blue-shift and from bright faculae and dark sunspots transiting the rotating solar disc. We remove these rotationally modulated magnetic-activity contributions from simultaneous radial velocities observed by the HARPS-N solar feed to produce a radial-velocity time series arising from the magnetically quiet solar surface (the ‘inactive-region radial velocities’). We find that the level of variability in the inactive-region radial velocities remains constant over the almost 7 year baseline and shows no correlation with well-known activity indicators. With an RMS of roughly 1 m s−1, the inactive-region radial-velocity time series dominates the total RV variability budget during the decline of solar cycle 24. Finally, we compare the variability amplitude and timescale of the inactive-region radial velocities with simulations of supergranulation. We find consistency between the inactive-region radial-velocity and simulated time series, indicating that supergranulation is a significant contribution to the overall solar radial velocity variability, and may be the main source of variability towards solar minimum. This work highlights supergranulation as a key barrier to detecting Earth twins.

KW - Sun: granulation

KW - techniques: radial velocity

KW - methods: data analysis

U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stad3723

DO - 10.1093/mnras/stad3723

M3 - Article

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 527

SP - 7681

EP - 7691

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

M1 - stad3723

ER -

The magnetically quiet solar surface dominates HARPS-N solar RVs during low activity

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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