ASPCS
 
Back to Volume
Paper: Three-Dimensional Simulations of Solar and Stellar Dynamos: The Influence of a Tachocline
Volume: 416, Solar-Stellar Dynamos as Revealed by Helio- and Asteroseismology: GONG 2008/SOHO 21
Page: 443
Authors: Miesch, M. S.; Browning, M. K.; Brun, A. S.; Toomre, J.; Brown, B. P.
Abstract: We review recent advances in modeling global-scale convection and dynamo processes with the Anelastic Spherical Harmonic (ASH) code. In particular, we have recently achieved the first global-scale solar convection simulations that exhibit turbulent pumping of magnetic flux into a simulated tachocline and the subsequent organization and amplification of toroidal field structures by rotational shear. The presence of a tachocline not only promotes the generation of mean toroidal flux, but it also enhances and stabilizes the mean poloidal field throughout the convection zone, promoting dipolar structure with less frequent polarity reversals. The magnetic field generated by a convective dynamo with a tachocline and overshoot region is also more helical overall, with a sign reversal in the northern and southern hemispheres. Toroidal tachocline fields exhibit little indication of magnetic-buoyancy instabilities, but may be undergoing magneto-shear instabilities.
Back to Volume