Mean-field and direct simulations of the hydrodynamics and hydromagnetics of the solar convection zone are discussed with the ultimate aim to understand the generation of differential rotation and magnetic fields. Various arguments constraining the values of the various turbulent diffusion coefficients are presented. It is suggested that the turbulent magnetic diffusivity is much smaller than the eddy viscosity which, in turn, is by up to a factor of ten smaller than the eddy conductivity. The magnetic field obtained from direct simulations is highly intermittent, and there is no clear systematic orientation of bipolar regions emerging from the convection zone. Various mechanisms that might cause such a field orientation are considered. Finally, the application of direct simulations to the determination of mean-field transport coefficients is emphasised.

A rigorous treatment is given for a construction via Markov chains of a binary (0–1) stationary homogeneous Markov random field on Z × Z. The resulting process possesses rather interesting properties. For example, its correlation structure is geometric and it may be easily simulated. Some of the results are rather unintuitive — indeed counter-intuitive — but their demonstration is straightforward involving only the most elementary properties of Markov chains.