Physics
Scientific paper
May 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sp31a17m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SP31A-17
Physics
7544 Stellar Interiors And Dynamo Theory, 7863 Turbulence
Scientific paper
Helioseismology has revealed a narrow shear layer in the solar interior across which the internal solar rotation rate changes from an approximately 30 percent latitudinal variation in the convective envelope to nearly solid body rotation in the radiative interior. Although this shear layer, known as the solar tachocline, may extend into the convection zone, evidence suggests that it is centered in the overshoot region or perhaps deeper in the stably-stratified interior. Turbulence may be driven in the tachocline by penetrative convection or by instability of the mean zonal shear. Such turbulence would be strongly influenced by the stellar rotation and the stable stratification which would tend to make it quasi-2D. The manner in which this turbulence feeds back on the mean shear is of crucial importance to the structure and dynamics of the tachocline. It may behave like an anisotropic eddy viscosity (Spiegel & Zahn 1992) or it may instead act to enhance the mean shear (Gough & McIntyre 1999). We investigate this issue using high-resolution simulations of stably-stratified, rotating turbulence in a thin spherical shell. The numerical experiments include random high-wavenumber forcing (vortical or divergent) as well as steady shear forcing. The results indicate that the turbulence does indeed have a diffusive character, tending to suppress the mean flow. Further aspects of the turbulence are also described.
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