The art of fitting p-mode spectra: Part II. Leakage and noise covariance matrices

Abstract

In Part I we have developed a theory for fitting p-mode Fourier spectra assuming that these spectra have a multi-normal distribution. We showed, using Monte-Carlo simulations, how one can obtain p-mode parameters using 'Maximum Likelihood Estimators'. In this article, hereafter Part II, we show how to use the theory developed in Part I for fitting real data. We introduce 4 new diagnostics in helioseismology: the $(m,\nu)$ echelle diagramme, the cross echelle diagramme, the inter echelle diagramme, and the ratio cross spectrum. These diagnostics are extremely powerful to visualize and understand the covariance matrices of the Fourier spectra, and also to find bugs in the data analysis code. These diagrammes can also be used to derive quantitative information on the mode leakage and noise covariance matrices. Numerous examples using the LOI/SOHO and GONG data are given.