Related papers: The Sun's Shallow Meridional Circulation
Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic field on the visible solar surface that strongly affect the convective energy transport in their interior and surroundings. The filamentary outer regions (penumbrae) of sunspots show systematic radial…
The outer surface layers of the sun show a clear deceleration at low latitudes. This is generally thought to be the result of a strong dominance of vertical turbulent motions associated with strong downdrafts. This strong negative radial…
The polar magnetic field of the Sun is a manifestation of certain aspects of the dynamo process and is a good precursor for predicting a sunspot cycle before its onset. Although actual synoptic measurements of this field exist only from the…
We considered variations the dipole and the quadrupole components of the solar large-scale magnetic field. Both the axial and the equatorial dipoles exhibit a systematic decrease in the past four cycles in accordance with the general…
The theory of the solar/stellar activity cycles is presented, based on the mean-field concept in magnetohydrodynamics. A new approach to the formulation of the electromotive force and the theory of differential rotation and meridional…
The magnetic cycle on the Sun consists of two consecutive 11-yr sunspot cycles and exhibits a polarity reversal around sunspot maximum. Although solar dynamo theories have progressively become more sophisticated, the details as to how the…
We have used semi-synthetic records of emerging sunspot groups based on sunspot number data as input for a surface flux transport model to reconstruct the evolution of the large-scale solar magnetic field and the open heliospheric flux from…
Magneto-convection simulations on meso-granule and granule scales near the solar surface are used to study small scale dynamo activity, the emergence and disappearance of magnetic flux tubes, and the formation and evolution of micropores.…
Self-organization properties of sustained magnetized plasma are applied to selected solar data to understand solar magnetic fields. Torsional oscillations are speed-up and slow-down bands of the azimuthal flow that correlate with the solar…
The solar convection zone exhibits a strong level of differential rotation, whereby the rotation period of the polar regions is about 25-30% longer than the equatorial regions. The Coriolis force associated with these zonal flows…
Polar fields at the minimum of a sunspot cycle -- which are a manifestation of the radial component of the Sun's poloidal field -- are deemed to be the best indicator of the strength of the toroidal component, and hence the amplitude of the…
Two well known turbulent dynamo and MHD oscillation mechanisms are critically examined and fundamental difficulties are presented. Following new ideas on the genesis of the solar cycle and activity phenomena are presented. Inevitability of…
We explore consequences for the solar dynamo of a newly-developed physical hypothesis describing a weak coupling of the orbital and rotational motions of extended bodies. The coupling is given by - c ((dL/dt) x omega sub alpha) x r, where…
Observations of rapidly rotating solar-like stars show a significant mixture of opposite-polarity magnetic fields within their polar regions. To explain these observations, models describing the surface transport of magnetic flux demand the…
In the quiet Sun, magnetic fields are usually observed as small-scale magnetic elements, `salt and pepper', covering the entire solar surface. By using 3D radiative MHD numerical simulations we demonstrate that these fields are a result of…
We report on the results of four convective dynamo simulations with an outer coronal layer. The magnetic field is self-consistently generated by the convective motions beneath the surface. Above the convection zone, we include a polytropic…
We improve the description of the evolution of the Sun's open and total magnetic flux on time scales of years to millenia. In the model employed here the evolution of the solar total and open magnetic flux is computed from the flux emerging…
The Sun's variability is controlled by the progression and interaction of the magnetized systems that form the 22-year magnetic activity cycle (the "Hale Cycle'') as they march from their origin at $\sim$55 degrees latitude to the equator,…
The calling card of solar magnetism is the sunspot cycle, during which sunspots regularly reverse their polarity sense every 11 years. However, a number of more complicated time-dependent behaviors have also been identified. In particular,…
The study of spatial and temporal scales on which small magnetic structures (magnetic elements) are organized in the quiet Sun may be approached by determining how they are transported on the solar photosphere by convective motions. The…