http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object ... ctid=42602
http://www.solardaily.com/reports/SOHO_ ... y_999.html
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25253
http://www.earthtoday.net/news/viewpr.html?pid=25253
I recall someone mentioning that discharging double layers may be expected to oscillate in this fashion? More evidence toward an electric sun? Flares are pretty obvious electrical events. Solar lightning, if you will...Data from the VIRGO instrument on SOHO have been used to show that solar flares drive global oscillations in the Sun. This confirms a prediction made more than 30 years ago. The result has implications for our understanding of flares on the Sun and on solar-like stars.
[...]
Analysis of the data shows a strong correlation between the energy at high frequencies (above 5.3 mHz) and the appearance of solar flares. As the number of solar flares increases so too does the strength of the high-frequency oscillations.
The idea that solar flares could excite free global oscillations in the Sun was proposed in the early 1970’s. The phenomenon is similar to what happens on Earth in the aftermath of a large earthquake. A recent example is the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake; this quake set the Earth ringing for several weeks afterwards. The Karoff and Kjeldsen study shows that this is also true for the Sun.
The authors note that it is still not clear exactly what mechanism can explain how solar flares excite the high-frequency oscillations.
This result will bring new insight into the phenomenon of solar flares. It may also be applicable to studies of solar-like stars. High-frequency waves have already been detected in beta Hydri and in alpha Cen A & B (Karoff 2007). If telescopes, such as COROT or Kepler, can measure the time variation of the amplitude of these waves then it may be possible to infer the existence of flares on these stars.
Cheers,
~Michael Gmirkin