Modeling the Center-to-limb Systematic in Normal-mode Coupling Measurements

Abstract Solar meridional circulation (MC), which manifests as poleward flow near the surface, is a relatively weak flow. While MC has been measured through various local helioseismic techniques, there is a lack of consensus about the nature of the depth profile and location of return flow, owing to its small amplitude and poor signal-to-noise ratio in observations. The measurements are strongly hampered by systematic effects whose amplitudes are comparable to the signal induced by the flow, and modeling them is therefore crucial. The removal of the center-to-limb (C2L) systematic, which is the largest known feature hampering the inference of meridional flow, has been heuristically performed in helioseismic analyses, but its effect on global modes is not fully understood or modeled. Here, we propose both a way to model the C2L systematic and a method for estimation of meridional flow using global helioseismic cross-spectral analysis. We demonstrate that the systematic cannot be ignored while modeling the mode-coupling cross-spectral measurement, and thus is critical for the inference of MC. We also show that inclusion of a model for the C2L systematic improves shallow MC estimates from cross-spectral analysis.