The Five-Minute Oscillations on the Solar Surface*

The acoustic properties of the subphotospheric layers are examined. It is shown that standing acoustic waves may be trapped in a layer below the photosphere. These standing waves may exist only along discrete lines in the diagnostic diagram of horizontal wavenumber versus frequency. The positions of these lines are derived from a modal analysis of the solar envelope. The lines for the fundamental mode and the first-overtone mode pass through the centers of the two peaks observed by Frazier. An examination of the energy balance of the oscillations shows that they are overstable. When they are assigned an amplitude of 0.2 km sec⁻¹, they generate about (5–7) × 10⁶ ergs cm⁻² sec⁻¹. This power output suggests that the dissipation of the 5-minute oscillations above the temperature minimum is responsible for heating the chromosphere and corona.