| Issue |
A&A
Volume 550, February 2013
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | L9 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| Section | Letters | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201220766 | |
| Published online | 29 January 2013 | |
Reversals of the solar dipole
1 School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
e-mail: moss@ma.man.ac.uk
2 Institute for Solar-Terrestrial Physics, PO Box 291, 664033 Irkutsk, Russia
3 Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory, 196140 St. Petersburg, Russia
4 Department of Physics, Moscow University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
Received: 20 November 2012
Accepted: 31 December 2012
Context. During a solar magnetic field reversal the magnetic dipole moment does not vanish, but migrates between poles, in contradiction to the predictions of mean-field dynamo theory.
Aims. We try to explain this as a consequence of magnetic fluctuations.
Methods. We used the statistics of fluctuations to estimate observable signatures.
Results. Simple statistical estimates, taken with results from mean-field dynamo theory, suggest that a non-zero dipole moment may persist through a global field reversal.
Conclusions. Fluctuations in the solar magnetic field may play a key role in explaining reversals of the solar dipole.
Key words: Sun: dynamo / Sun: activity / Sun: surface magnetism / dynamo
© ESO, 2013
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