Magnetic polarity reversals (2)

Image sequence showing the polarity reversal of the deep toroidal magnetic field in the course of a magnetic cycle developing in a magnetohydrodynamical numerical simulation of solar convection. The sequence spans close to 40 years, and shows one magnetic half cycle, going from one cycle maximum to the next. The viewpoint is along the equatorial plane. The color scale codes the longitudinal component of the magnetic field, red-yellow for positive magnetic polarity (pointing in the direction of solar rotation, here from left to right), and blue-green for negative, peaking here at +/- 0.3 Tesla. Even though the internal magnetic field is spatiotemporally very intermittent, at mid-latitudes a well-defined axisymmetric flux system is present, antisymmetric about the equatorial plane.

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Ghizaru, M., Charbonneau, P., et Smolarkiewicz, P.K., Magnetic cycles in a large eddy simulation of solar convection, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 715, L133-L137; on ADS
Racine, E., Charbonneau, P., Ghizaru, M., Bouchat, A., et Smolarkiewicz, P.K., On the mode of dynamo action in a global large-eddy simulation of solar convection, The Astrophysical Journal, 735, id46; on ADS