Issue |
A&A
Volume 568, August 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A113 | |
Number of page(s) | 16 | |
Section | The Sun | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201423700 | |
Published online | 02 September 2014 |
Characteristics of magnetic solar-like cycles in a 3D MHD simulation of solar convection⋆
1 CENTRA, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
e-mail: dariopassos@ist.utl.pt
2 GRPS, Départment de Physique, Université de Montréal, CP 6128, Centre-ville, Montréal, Qc, H3C-3J7 Canada
3 Departamento de Física, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
Received: 23 February 2014
Accepted: 30 May 2014
We analyse the statistical properties of the stable magnetic cycle unfolding in an extended 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulation of solar convection produced with the EULAG-MHD code. The millennium simulation spans over 1650 years, in the course of which forty polarity reversals take place on a regular ~40 yr cadence, remaining well-synchronized across solar hemispheres. In order to characterize this cycle and facilitate its comparison with measures typically used to represent solar activity, we build two proxies for the magnetic field in the simulation mimicking the solar toroidal field and the polar radial field. Several quantities that characterize the cycle are measured (period, amplitudes, etc.) and correlations between them are computed. These are then compared with their observational analogs. From the typical Gnevyshev-Ohl pattern, to hints of Gleissberg modulation, the simulated cycles share many of the characteristics of their observational analogs even though the simulation lacks poloidal field regeneration through active region decay, a mechanism nowadays often considered an essential component of the solar dynamo. Some significant discrepancies are also identified, most notably the in-phase variation of the simulated poloidal and toroidal large-scale magnetic components, and the low degree of hemispheric coupling at the level of hemispheric cycle amplitudes. Possible causes underlying these discrepancies are discussed.
Key words: dynamo / Sun: interior / Sun: activity / Sun: magnetic fields / magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) / sunspots
Appendix is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
© ESO, 2014
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