The Five-Minute Oscillations as Nonradial Pulsations of the Entire Sun

Abstract

Calculations of the stability coefficient show that the Sun should be pulsating as a unit in nonradial modes of high order. The pulsations are driven by the superadiabatic gradient of the low photosphere and by the same sensitive changes in opacity that are known to be iniportant in variable stars. The existence of solar pulsations can explain many of the large scale features observed in the well known 5-ininute oscillations of the solar atmosphere.