Scale Selection in the Stratified Convection of the Solar Photosphere

Abstract

We examine the role of stratification in determining the length scales of turbulent anelastic convection. Motivated by the range of scales observed in convection at the solar photosphere, we perform local numerical simulations of convection for a range of density contrasts in large domains, analyzing both the Eulerian and Lagrangian statistics of the flow. We consider the two cases of constant dynamic viscosity and constant kinematic viscosity. We discuss the implications of our results to the issue of solar mesogranulation.