ON THE SOLAR DIFFERENTIAL ROTATION AND MERIDIONAL CURRENTS,
Abstract
The solar differential rotation and large-scale meridional currents are investigated with the axially symmetric, time-independent hydrodynamic equations of motion, including anisotropic convective viscosity forces. The phi-component of the equations of motion is integrated to give a linear, ordinary differential equation determining the angular velocity distribution. The Reynolds number for the differential rotation in the convection zone is shown to be large, and an approximation based on this fact is used to solve the equations of motion to first order, under the assumption that the polar heating effects are negligible and that the convection zone is barytropic. A good fit to the observed differential rotation is obtained if the anisotropy parameter satisfies s - 1 approximately equals 1/5; the differential rotation is then approximately independent of the magnitude of the dynamic convective viscosity eta. The circulational velocities near the surface at high latitudes are approximately (s - 1)(1/rho) grad eta. Reasonable agreement with observed values is shown. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0653987
Entities
People
- William J. Cocke
Organizations
- The Aerospace Corporation