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Challenges of magnetism in the turbulent Sun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Allan Sacha Brun
Affiliation:
DSM/DAPNIA/SAp & UMR AIM 7158, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France email: sacha.brun@cea.fr
Mark S. Miesch
Affiliation:
HAO, NCAR, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, USA, email: miesch@ucar.edu
Juri Toomre
Affiliation:
JILA, University of Colorado, UCB440, Boulder, CO 80309-0440, USA email: jtoomre@solarz.colorado.edu
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Abstract

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Three-dimensional global modelling of turbulent convection coupled to rotation and magnetism within the Sun are revealing processes relevant to many stars. We study spherical shells of compressible convection spanning many density scale heights using the MHD version of the anelastic spherical harmonic (ASH) code on massively parallel supercomputers. The simulations reveal that strong magnetic fields can be realized in the bulk of the solar convection zone while still attaining differential rotation profiles that make good contact with helioseismic findings. We find that the Maxwell and Reynolds stresses present in such a turbulent layer play an important role in redistributing angular momentum, with the latter maintaining the differential rotation, aided by baroclinic forcing at the base of the convection zone which is consistent with a tachocline there. The dynamo processes generate strong non-axisymmetric and intermittent fields and weak mean (axisymmetric) fields, but do not possess a regular cyclic magnetism. The explicit inclusion of penetrative convection into the tachocline below is modifying such behavior, serving to build strong toroidal magnetic fields there that may yield more prominent mean fields that have the potential of erupting upward.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

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