Related papers: Giant Convection Cells Found on the Sun

Supergranulation on the surface of the Sun is an organized cellular flow pattern with a characteristic scale of 30 Mm. It is superficially similar to the well understood granulation that operates at the 1.5 Mm natural scale of convection,…

The global scales of solar convection are studied through three-dimensional simulations of compressible convection carried out in spherical shells of rotating fluid which extend from the base of the convection zone to within 15 Mm of the…

Surface granulation of the Sun is primarily a consequence of thermal transport in the outer 1 % of the radius. Its typical scale of about 1 - 2 Mm is set by the balance between convection, free-streaming radiation, and the strong density…

Recent analysis revealed that supergranules (convection cells seen at the Sun's surface) are advected by the zonal flows at depths equal to the widths of the cells themselves. Here we probe the structure of the meridional circulation by…

Supergranulation is a fluid-dynamical phenomenon taking place in the solar photosphere, primarily detected in the form of a vigorous cellular flow pattern with a typical horizontal scale of approximately 30--35~megameters, a dynamical…

Supergranules are convection cells seen at the Sun's surface as a space filling pattern of horizontal flows. While typical supergranules have diameters of about 35 Mm, they exhibit a broad spectrum of sizes from ~10 Mm to ~100 Mm. Here we…

The Sun's axisymmetric large-scale flows, differential rotation and meridional circulation, are thought to be maintained by the influence of rotation on the thermal-convective motions in the solar convection zone. These large-scale flows…

Magnetoconvection at the solar surface governs the dynamics in the upper solar atmosphere and sustains the heliosphere. Properties of this fundamental process are poorly described near the solar poles. Here we report the first…

Supergranulation is characterized by horizontally divergent flows with typical length scales of 32 Mm in the solar photosphere. Unlike granulation, the size of which is comparable to both the thickness of the radiative boundary layer and…

Measurements of the large cellular flows on the Sun were made by local correlation tracking of supergranules seen in full-disk Doppler images obtained by the HMI instrument on the NASA SDO satellite. The hourly measurements were averaged…

Turbulent convection efficiently transports energy up to the solar photosphere, but its multi-scale nature and dynamic properties are still not fully understood. Several works in the literature have investigated the emergence of patterns of…

Context: Giant-cell convection is believed to be an important component of solar dynamics. For example, it is expected to play a crucial role in maintaining the Sun's differential rotation. Aims: We re-examine early reports of giant…

The Sun's global meridional circulation is evident as a slow poleward flow at its surface. This flow is observed to carry magnetic elements poleward - producing the Sun's polar magnetic fields as a key part of the 11-year sunspot cycle.…

Results of realistic simulations of solar surface convection on the scale of supergranules (96 Mm wide by 20 Mm deep) are presented. The simulations cover only 10% of the geometric depth of the solar convection zone, but half its pressure…

We use subsurface-flow velocity maps inferred by time--distance helioseismology from Doppler measurements with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to investigate variations of large-scale…

Below the scale of supergranules we find that cellular flows are present in the solar photosphere at two distinct size scales, approximately 2 Mm and 4 Mm, with distinct characteristic times. Simultaneously present in the flow is a…

Context: Supergranulation is a pattern of the velocity field at the surface of the Sun, which has been known about for more than fifty years, however, no satisfactory explanation of its origin has been proposed. Aims: New observational…

Convection is the mechanism by which energy is transported through the outermost 30% of the Sun. Solar turbulent convection is notoriously difficult to model across the entire convection zone where the density spans many orders of…

Using a thin flux tube model in a rotating spherical shell of turbulent, solar-like convective flows, we find that the distribution of emerging flux tubes in our simulation is inhomogeneous in longitude, with properties similar to those of…

Convection, differential rotation, and meridional circulation of solar plasma are studied based on helioseismic data covering the period from May 2010 to August 2024, significantly prolonged compared to that previously considered. Depth…