Characteristics of solar meridional flows during solar cycle 23

79Citations
Citations of this article
16Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

We have analyzed available full-disk data from the Michelson Doppler Imager on board SOHO using the "ring diagram" technique to determine the behavior of solar meridional flows over solar cycle 23 in the outer 2% of the solar radius. We find that the dominant component of meridional flows during solar maximum was much lower than that during the minima at the beginning of cycles 23 and 24. There were differences in the flow velocities even between the two minima. The meridional flows show a migrating pattern with higher-velocity flows migrating toward the equator as activity increases. Additionally, we find that the migrating pattern of the meridional flow matches those of sunspot butterfly diagram and the zonal flows in the shallow layers. A high-latitude band in meridional flow appears around 2004, well before the current activity minimum. A Legendre polynomial decomposition of the meridional flows shows that the latitudinal pattern of the flow was also different during the maximum as compared to that during the two minima. The different components of the flow have different time dependences, and the dependence is different at different depths. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Basu, S., & Antia, H. M. (2010). Characteristics of solar meridional flows during solar cycle 23. Astrophysical Journal, 717(1), 488–495. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/717/1/488

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free