Large-Scale Dynamics of the Convection Zone and Tachocline

By Mark S. Miesch. 2005

336 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The past few decades have seen dramatic progress in our understanding of solar interior dynamics, prompted by the relatively new science of helioseismology and increasingly sophisticated numerical models. As the ultimate driver of solar variability and space weather, global-scale convective motions are of particular interest from a practical as well as a theoretical perspective. Turbulent convection under the influence of rotation and stratification redistributes momentum and energy, generating differential rotation, meridional circulation, and magnetic fields through hydromagnetic dynamo processes. In the solar tachocline near the base of the convection zone, strong angular velocity shear further amplifies fields which subsequently rise to the surface to form active regions. Penetrative convection, instabilities, stratified turbulence, and waves all add to the dynamical richness of the tachocline region and pose particular modeling challenges. In this article we review observational, theoretical, and computational investigations of global-scale dynamics in the solar interior. Particular emphasis is placed on high-resolution global simulations of solar convection, highlighting what we have learned from them and how they may be improved.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/73ef98367c94a4d35995c4c8ca89a9d267b65138

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Citations in the corpus

Solar Differential Rotation Influenced by Latitudinal Entropy Variations in the Tachocline (2006, background): “…we may derive the following expression (Kitchatinov & Rüdiger 1995; Durney 1999; Elliott et al. 2000; Brun & Toomre 2002; Thompson et al. 2003; Miesch 2005): @hSi @ ¼ 2CP g r 2 sin 60 = : ¼ 2rCP g 60 = : v ; ð1Þ with S the specific entropy, (r, ) the mean angular velocity, CP the…”
Anelastic convection-driven dynamo benchmarks (2011, background): “Further explanation of the anelastic equations is given in Miesch (2005).”
Local Helioseismology: Three-Dimensional Imaging of the Solar Interior (2010, background): “In addition to its role in some dynamo theories, the meridional flow is also thought to play an important role in transporting angular momentum and thus in maintaining the differential rotation (for a recent review see Miesch 2005).”
Dynamo Models of the Solar Cycle (2005, background): “Since then and until recently, efforts on the full-sphere simulation front have gone mostly into the purely hydrodynamical problem of reproducing the large-scale flows in the solar convective envelope, as inferred by helioseismology (see, e.g., Miesch, 2005, and references therein).”
Dynamo Action in the Solar Convection Zone and Tachocline: Pumping and Organization of Toroidal Fields (2006, background): “…the elements have now begun to be studied singly with reasonable fidelity using three-dimensional numerical modeling, often turning to localized planar domains to obtain sufficient spatial resolution within the simulations (see reviews by Ossendrijver 2003; Fan 2004; Charbonneau 2005; Miesch 2005).”
Solar Interior Rotation and its Variation (2009, background): “For a review from a modeler’s perspective, see Miesch (2005).”
Magnetic Flux Transport at the Solar Surface (2014, background): “…include differential rotation (Howe 2009) and its variation in the form of torsional oscillations (Howard and Labonte 1980), meridional circulation (Miesch 2005; Rightmire-Upton et al. 2012; Zhao et al. 2013), and different scales of convection ranging from granulation (Nordlund et al. 2009) to…”
Solar Dynamo Theory (2014, background): “The dynamics of solar/stellar convection is discussed in depth in the recent review articles by Miesch (2005) and Miesch & Toomre (2009), and by Howe (2009) on the observational (helioseismic) front.”
Structure and Evolution of Giant Cells in Global Models of Solar Convection (2007, methodology): “…consistent with the more general characteristic of turbulent compressible convection that downflow lanes tend to be more turbulent and vortical than the broader, weaker upflows (Brummell et al. 1996; Brandenburg et al. 1996; Stein & Nordlund 1998; Porter & Woodward 2000; Miesch 2005, see also Fig.”
Magnetic Fields in the Solar Convection Zone (2004, methodology): “A reference to the review by Miesch (2005) has also been included.”
Exploring the Physical Basis of Solar Cycle Predictions: Flux Transport Dynamics and Persistence of Memory in Advection- versus Diffusion-dominated Solar Convection Zones (2007, background): “They associate this drift velocity with the deep meridional counterflow that must exist to balance the poleward flows that are observed at the surface (Hathaway 1996, 2005; Miesch 2005).”