Recently, Chang et al. (1997, hereafter Paper I) developed a new method, based on time-distance curves (Duvall et al. 1993), to construct a three-dimensional acoustic intensity image of the solar interior. Here we report results from another data set.

Solar p-mode waves, which are continually generated and dissipated stochastically by the turbulent convection, are scattered and absorbed by local inhomogeneities. If we appropriately add p-mode waves observed at the surface, based on the knowledge of how the waves propagate (time-distance curves), such that acoustic signals emanating from a particular point at a particular time are collected in phase, we can reconstruct the p-mode amplitude at the target point at the target time. The scheme of adding signals from a target point in phase plays the same role as a lens in optics. Thus we call it the “computational acoustic lens” (Paper I). This imaging technique can be used to construct acoustic amplitudes at any point in the solar interior based on the time-distance curve between that depth and the surface, which can be computed from a standard solar model based on the ray theory. The time series of constructed a plitudes provides information of both the intensity and the phase of the wavetrain. The intensity can be used to study p-mode absorption regions, and the phase can be used to probe other properties of local inhomogeneities, such as flow and change in wave speed.