THE ROLE OF SUBSURFACE FLOWS IN SOLAR SURFACE CONVECTION: MODELING THE SPECTRUM OF SUPERGRANULAR AND LARGER SCALE FLOWS

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 of the vertical motions at each depth. Scales larger than t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2014-09, Vol.793 (1), p.1-11
Main Authors: Lord, J W, Cameron, R H, Rast, M P, Rempel, M, Roudier, T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AMPLITUDES
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Cascades
CONTINUITY EQUATIONS
CONVECTION
Convection modes
CORRELATIONS
DENSITY
EQUATIONS OF STATE
GRANULATION
HEAT FLUX
Heat transfer
HYDRODYNAMIC MODEL
IONIZATION
LUMINOSITY
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PHOTOSPHERE
Scale (ratio)
Scale height
Sciences of the Universe
SIMULATION
SOLAR GRANULATION
Solar power generation
SPECTRA
SUN
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TURBULENCE
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Summary: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 of the vertical motions at each depth. Scales larger than this decay with height from the deeper layers. Those smaller are assumed to follow a Kolmogorov turbulent cascade, with the total power in the vertical convective motions matching that required to transport the solar luminosity in a mixing length formulation. Since the large-scale modes have reduced amplitudes, modes on the scale of super-granulation and smaller remain important to convective heat flux even in the deep layers, suggesting that small-scale convective correlations are maintained through the bulk of the solar convection zone.
ISSN:1538-4357
0004-637X
2041-8205
1538-4357
2041-8213
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/793/1/24