Detalles de publicación
PP 08021
Convectively driven vortex flows in the Sun
((1) Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna,
Tenerife, Spain,
(2) Departamento de Analisis Matematico, Universidad de La Laguna,
E-38271 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain,
(3) Grupo de Astronomia y Ciencias del Espacio, Universidad de Valencia,
E-46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain)
We have discovered small whirlpools in the Sun, with a size
similar to the terrestrial hurricanes (<~0.5~Mm).
The theory of solar convection predicts them, but they had remained
elusive so far. The vortex flows are created at the downdrafts where
the plasma returns to the solar interior after cooling down, and we
detect them because some magnetic bright points (BPs) follow a
logarithmic spiral in their way to be engulfed by a downdraft.
Our disk center observations show 0.009 ~vortexes
per Mm^2, with a lifetime of the order of 5~min, and with
no preferred sense of rotation. They are not evenly spread out
over the surface, but they seem to trace the supergranulation and
the mesogranulation. These observed properties are strongly biased
by our type of measurement, unable to detect vortexes except when
they are engulfing magnetic BPs.
similar to the terrestrial hurricanes (<~0.5~Mm).
The theory of solar convection predicts them, but they had remained
elusive so far. The vortex flows are created at the downdrafts where
the plasma returns to the solar interior after cooling down, and we
detect them because some magnetic bright points (BPs) follow a
logarithmic spiral in their way to be engulfed by a downdraft.
Our disk center observations show 0.009 ~vortexes
per Mm^2, with a lifetime of the order of 5~min, and with
no preferred sense of rotation. They are not evenly spread out
over the surface, but they seem to trace the supergranulation and
the mesogranulation. These observed properties are strongly biased
by our type of measurement, unable to detect vortexes except when
they are engulfing magnetic BPs.
