Identification of inertial modes in the solar convection zone

Santiago Andrés Triana, Gustavo Guerrero, Ankit Barik, Jérémy Rekier

Published 2022-04-27Version 1

The observation of global acoustic waves (p modes) in the Sun has been key to unveil its internal structure and dynamics. A different kind of waves, known as sectoral Rossby modes, have been observed and identified relatively recently, which potentially opens the door to probe internal processes that are inaccessible through p mode helioseismology. Yet another set of waves, appearing as retrograde-propagating, equatorially antisymmetric vorticity waves, have been observed very recently but their identification remained elusive. Here, through a numerical model implemented as an eigenvalue problem, we provide evidence supporting the identification of those waves as inertial eigenmodes, of a class distinct from Rossby modes, with substantial amplitudes deep in the solar convective zone. We also suggest that the signature of tesseral Rossby modes might be present in the recent observational data.