We present estimates of the solar internal angular velocity as functions of radius and heliographic latitude over the outer portion of the solar interior that stretches between 0.6 and 0.95R⊙. We obtained these estimates by first analyzing the frequency splittings of solar intermediate-degree (3 ≤ l ≤ 170) p-mode oscillations which were observed with the 60 foot (18 m) tower telescope of the Mount Wilson Observatory during 16 days of 1984 July and August. We then combined these splittings with those from other published studies in order to obtain composite rotational frequency splittings as a function of degree, l, for the solar equatorial plane, for middle latitudes, and for the solar rotation axis. These composite splittings were then converted into radial profiles of the angular velocity by assuming that the composite frequency splitting within each bin was a measure of the internal rotational velocity at a radial distance which was located midway between the surface and the innermost turning points of the p-modes contained within that bin. Finally, these composite inferred rotational profiles were then compared with the results of formal inversions of two of the sets of observed frequency splittings. Along the equatorial plane, our results suggest that the angular velocity first increases slightly with increasing depth below the photosphere (i.e., ∂Ω/∂r < 0) until it reaches a maximum in the outer portion of the convection zone. The equatorial angular velocity then appears to decrease with increasing depth (i.e., ∂Ω/∂r ≈ 66 nHz/R⊙ for 0.6R⊙ ≤ r ≤ 0.95R⊙) until it reaches a value that is at least 3% below the surface gas rotation rate in the radiative zone somewhere below the base of the convection zone. Our results also suggest that the latitudinal differential rotation which is visible in the photosphere persists over most or all of the convection zone. Finally, the comparisons of our composite angular velocity profiles with those obtained by the formal inversions suggest that this latitudinal differential rotation might disappear completely below the convection zone, although not all of the published splittings are in agreement on this point.
