Testing the helioseismic determination of opacity corrections

Abstract

We investigate the effect of localized opacity modifications on the sound-speed profile of solar models. The sound-speed difference between the Sun and a solar model is used to deduce the opacity correction that would be required to bring the model into agreement with the Sun. We test this procedure on artificial data for a pair of solar models and apply it to the solar sound speed as inferred from inversion of LOWL observed frequencies. We show that a solar model constructed with the appropriately modified opacity has a sound-speed profile very similar to that of the Sun.