Solar Interior Rotation and its Variation

By R. Howe. 2009

300 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article surveys the development of observational understanding of the interior rotation of the Sun and its temporal variation over approximately forty years, starting with the 1960s attempts to determine the solar core rotation from oblateness and proceeding through the development of helioseismology to the detailed modern picture of the internal rotation deduced from continuous helioseismic observations during solar cycle 23. After introducing some basic helioseismic concepts, it covers, in turn, the rotation of the core and radiative interior, the “tachocline” shear layer at the base of the convection zone, the differential rotation in the convection zone, the near-surface shear, the pattern of migrating zonal flows known as the torsional oscillation, and the possible temporal variations at the bottom of the convection zone. For each area, the article also briefly explores the relationship between observations and models.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/500a66a1db75f3ff5fdaca51f0671ce21979deca

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Citations in the corpus

• Solar Dynamo Theory (2014, methodology): “…high-resolution EULAG simulation, courtesy of Guerrero et al. (2013); (b) helioseismic inversion of the solar internal differential rotation, taken from Howe (2009); and differential rotation in (c) a purely hydrodynamical (HD) EULAG numerical simulation and (d ) a EULAG numerical simulation…”
• PERSISTENT MAGNETIC WREATHS IN A RAPIDLY ROTATING SUN (2010, background): “…bands of velocity speedup bear some resemblance to the poleward branch of torsional oscillations observed in the solar convection zone over the course of a solar magnetic activity cycle (e.g., Thompson et al. 2003; Howe 2009), though here they propagate to higher latitudes on a shorter time scale.”
• HOT STARS WITH HOT JUPITERS HAVE HIGH OBLIQUITIES (2010, background): “A problem with this notion is that the Sun’s convective and radiative zones appear to be well-coupled (Howe 2009).”
• Solar change and climate: an update in the light of the current exceptional solar minimum (2010, methodology): “However, we can set a minimum to the TSI in the MM by putting FS to zero. This gives a best estimate of the lower limit in the MM of ITS = 1364.64 ± 0.40 W m−2. The optimum value is 0.64 W m−2 less than that observed in the current minimum and 1.24 W m−2 less than the average over the last two solar”
• The Solar Cycle (2010, background): “However, there are significant offsets among the absolute measured values. Intercomparisons of the data have lead to different conclusions. Willson (1997) combined the SMM/ACRIM-I data with the later UARS/ACRIM-II data by using intercomparisons with Nimbus-7 and ERBS and concluded that the Sun was b”
• Asteroseismology of Solar-Type and Red-Giant Stars (2013, background): “A notable exception is of course the Sun, where helioseismic analysis of the frequency splittings of non-radial p modes has provided a detailed picture of rotation in the solar interior (e.g., see Thompson et al. 2003, Howe 2009).”
• Magnetic Flux Transport at the Solar Surface (2014, background): “…∂Br ∂θ ) + 1 R2⊙ sin 2 θ ∂2Br ∂φ2 + D(Br) + S(θ, φ, t), (1) whereu(φ, θ, t) is the velocity in the longitudinal (̂φ) direction,3(φ, θ, t) is the velocity in the latitudinal (̂θ) direction,ηH is the horizontal diffusivity at the surface (which we have assumed is uniform),D is some…”
• Slowing the spins of stellar cores (2019, background): “In the current Sun, the rotation rate is much slower and tAM ∼ 104 yr, but this still enforces nearly rigid rotation in agreement with helioseismic measurements (Howe 2009; Gough 2015).”