Hurlburt, Neal

Contact Email: hurlburt@lmsal.com
Institute: Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics
Laboratory
First Coauthor: Karel Schrijver
Institute: Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory
Research URL:http://www.lmsal.com/People/hurlburt.html
Subject Area: The Sun
Waveband: Radio
Technique: Computational Astrophysics
Presentation: Poster Display
Title: Simple models of supergranular magnetoconvection in cool stars
Abstract: Stellar atmospheres are heated and structured by the fluid motions in their convection zones and photospheres. In the case of the Sun much of this is due to the presence of supergranules which structures the magnetic field into a cellular pattern with scales on the order of 15Mm and lifetimes of several days. The maintenance of the magnetic network and the details of it's interaction with the supergranular flows has remained a problem. We present a dynamical model for photospheric flows based both upon theoretical expectations (that the surface flows obey MHD) and on observations (cell patterns determined by observations) to create a set of flows patterns on spherical shells. These models reproduce the key characteristics of supergranular motions and can be used to model the surface flows of other cool stars. The structuring of the magnetic fields induced by these models can then be used for comparison with the observations of stellar coronae.