2008/05/13 by Michal Švanda, Michal Svanda, А. Г. Косовичев +2
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Atmospheric sciences #Climatology #Flow (mathematics) #Geology #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Helioseismology #Latitude #Magnetic field #Mechanics #Meridional flow #Physics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar cycle #Solar wind #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Zonal and meridional #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/589997
4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL
arxiv created 2008/05/13 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The aim of this Letter is to extend our previous study of the solar-cycle variations of meridional flows and to investigate their latitudinal and longitudinal structure in the subphotospheric layer, especially their variations in magnetic regions. Helioseismology observations indicate that mass flows around active regions are dominated by inflows into those regions. On average, those local flows are more important around the leading magnetic polarities of active regions than around the following polarities and depend on the evolutionary stage of particular active regions. We present a statistical study based on MDI/ SOHO observations of 1996-2002 and show that this effect explains a significant part of the cyclic change of meridional flows in near-equatorial regions, but not at higher latitudes. A different mechanism driving solar-cycle variations of the meridional flow probably operates.