Related papers: On mesogranulation, network formation and supergra…
Aims: The interactions of velocity scales on the Sun's surface, from granulation to supergranulation are still not understood, nor are their interaction with magnetic fields. We thus aim at giving a better description of dynamics in the…
The Sun is a non-equilibrium dissipative system subjected to an energy flow which originates in its core. Convective overshooting motions create temperature and velocity structures which show a temporal and spatial evolution. As a result,…
We investigate how rotationally-constrained, deep convection might give rise to supergranulation, the largest distinct spatial scale of convection observed in the solar photosphere. While supergranulation is only weakly influenced by…
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…
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…
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…
The Sun provides us with the only spatially well-resolved astrophysical example of turbulent thermal convection. While various aspects of solar photospheric turbulence, such as granulation (one-Megameter horizontal scale), are well…
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…
The differential rotation of the sun, as deduced from helioseismology, exhibits a prominent radial shear layer near the top of the convection zone wherein negative radial gradients of angular velocity are evident in the low- and…
Solar granules are bright patterns surrounded by dark channels called intergranular lanes in the solar photosphere and are a manifestation of overshooting convection. Observational studies generally find stronger upflows in granules and…
The aim of this work is to give new observational constraints on solar surface flows by determining the horizontal scale dependence of the velocity and intensity fields, as represented by their power spectra, and to offer some theoretical…
We examine the role of stratification in determining the scale for turbulent anelastic convection. Motivated by the range of scales observed in convection at the solar photosphere, we perform local numerical simulations of convection for a…
We model the solar horizontal velocity power spectrum at scales larger than granulation using a two-component approximation to the mass continuity equation. The model takes four times the density scale height as the integral (driving) scale…
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,…
We present here numerical simulations of surface solar convection which cover a box of 30$\times30\times$3.2 Mm$^3$ with a resolution of 315$\times315\times$82, which is used to investigate the dynamics of scales larger than granulation. No…
Exploding granules on the solar surface play a major role in the dynamics of the outer part of the convection zone, especially in the diffusion of the magnetic field. We aim to develop an automated procedure able to investigate the location…
The solar photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun, where many bright granules, surrounded by narrow dark intergranular lanes, are observed everywhere. The granular pattern is a manifestation of convective motion at the photospheric…
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.…
We examine the role of small-scale granulation in helping to drive supergranulation and even larger scales of convection. The granulation is modeled as localized cooling events introduced at the upper boundary of a 3-D simulation of…
Regions of quiet Sun generally exhibit a complex distribution of small-scale magnetic field structures, which interact with the near-surface turbulent convective motions. Furthermore, it is probable that some of these magnetic fields are…