Full-sphere simulations of a circulation-dominated solar dynamo: Exploring the parity issue

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 427, Number 3, December I 2004


Page(s)		1019 - 1030
Section		The Sun
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041199

A&A 427, 1019-1030 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20041199

Full-sphere simulations of a circulation-dominated solar dynamo: Exploring the parity issue

P. Chatterjee¹, D. Nandy² and A. R. Choudhuri¹

¹ Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-560012, India
e-mail: [piyali;arnab]@physics.iisc.ernet.in
² Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA
e-mail: nandi@mithra.physics.montana.edu

(Received 30 April 2004 / Accepted 23 July 2004 )

Abstract
We explore a two-dimensional kinematic solar dynamo model in a full sphere, based on the helioseismically determined solar rotation profile and with an $\alpha$ effect concentrated near the solar surface, which captures the Babcock-Leighton idea that the poloidal field is created from the decay of tilted bipolar active regions. The meridional circulation, assumed to penetrate slightly below the tachocline, plays an important role. Some doubts have recently been raised regarding the ability of such a model to reproduce solar-like dipolar parity. We specifically address the parity issue and show that the dipolar mode is preferred when certain reasonable conditions are satisfied, the most important condition being the requirement that the poloidal field should diffuse efficiently to get coupled across the equator. Our model is shown to reproduce various aspects of observational data, including the phase relation between sunspots and the weak, diffuse field.

Key words: Sun: activity -- Sun: magnetic fields -- Sun: sunspots

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