Refresh, Continuation, and Science Exploitation of the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON)

The Sun is a touchstone for stellar astrophysics. It is an anchor for studies of the internal physics, structure and dynamics of other stars. Understanding what drives the observed changes to its activity and emissions is not only of crucial importance to solar-terrestrial relations, but also has wider relevance to studies of the influence that other stars have on their local environments, with the obvious implications for habitability of detected exoplanets.

The Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON) serves the international solar physics community with a unique helioseismic database, now illuminating its fifth 11-year activity cycle, on the Sun's low-degree "whole Sun" acoustic oscillations. Recent progress in Solar Physics observations and also in our probing of other Sun-like stars (both theory and observation) has in recent years has only enhanced the importance of the BiSON data.

Using BiSON, we will track the seismic behaviour of the Sun through Solar Cycle 25, which is forecast to be another weak cycle by modern standards like the preceding Cycle 24, and assess the Sun's global helioseismic behaviour across multiple 22-year Hale cycles, which have the same magnetic polarity. We will also probe the rotation of the Sun's inner layers, to provide important information relevant to understanding the dynamic evolution of stars. At the same time we will also perform a refresh of the instrumentation across the network.