Local helioseismology and the active Sun

Abstract The goal of local helioseismology is to elicit three‐dimensional information about the sub‐surface (or far‐side) structure and dynamics of the Sun from observations of the helioseismic wave field at the surface. The physical quantities of interest include flows, sound‐speed deviations and magnetic fields. However, strong surface magnetic fields induce large perturbations to the waves making inversions difficult to interpret. The purpose of this paper is to outline the methods of analysis used in local helioseismology, review discoveries associated with the magnetic Sun made using local helioseismology from the past three years, and highlight the efforts towards imaging the interior in the presence of strong magnetic fields (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)