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Turbulent Convection and Subtleties of Differential Rotation Within the Sun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

J. Toomre ,
A. S. Brun ,
M. DeRosa ,
J. R. Elliott  and
M. S. Miesch
J. Toomre
Affiliation:
JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA
A. S. Brun
Affiliation:
JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA
M. DeRosa
Affiliation:
JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA
J. R. Elliott
Affiliation:
Dept. Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BB, UK
M. S. Miesch
Affiliation:
DAMPT, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9EW, UK

Abstract

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The solar convection zone exhibits a differential rotation with radius and latitude that poses major theoretical challenges. Helioseismology has revealed that a smoothly varying pattern of decreasing angular velocity Ω with latitude long evident at the surface largely prints through much of the convection zone, encountering a region of strong shear called the tachocline at its base, below which the radiative interior is nearly in uniform solid body rotation. Helioseismic observations with MDI on SOHO and with GONG have also led to the detection of significant variations in Ω with 1.3 yr period in the vicinity of the tachocline. There is another shearing layer just below the solar surface, and that region exhibits propagating bands of zonal flow. Such rich dynamical behavior requires theoretical explanations, some of which are beginning to emerge from detailed 3-D simulations of turbulent convection in rotating spherical shells. We discuss some of the properties exhibited by such numerical models. Although these simulations are highly simplified representations of much of the complex physics occurring within the convection zone, they are providing a very promising path for understanding the solar differential rotation and its temporal variations.

Type
Session II: Convection Zone and Local Area Helioseismology
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 203: Recent Insights into the Physics of the Sun and Heliosphere: Highlights from Soho and Other Space Missions , 2001 , pp. 131 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001 

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