Coriolis force acting on near-surface horizontal flows during simulations of flux emergence produces a tilt angle consistent with Joy's law on the Sun

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Roland-Batty, William, Schunker, Hannah, Cameron, Robert H., Przybylski, Damien, Gizon, Laurent, Pontin, David I.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Roland-Batty, William
Schunker, Hannah
Cameron, Robert H.
Przybylski, Damien
Gizon, Laurent
Pontin, David I.
author_facet Roland-Batty, William
Schunker, Hannah
Cameron, Robert H.
Przybylski, Damien
Gizon, Laurent
Pontin, David I.
contents Joy's law describes the tilt of bipolar active regions on the Sun away from an east-west orientation, where the flux of the polarity concentrated at the prograde side tends to be closer to the equator than the polarity on the retrograde side. Joy's law is attributed to the Coriolis force because of the observed increase in tilt angle at higher latitudes. This tilt plays a crucial role in some solar dynamo models. Our goal is to model the effects of the Coriolis force on a flux tube as it rises through the near-surface convection zone. We use a three-dimensional Cartesian magnetohydrodynamic simulation of an untwisted flux tube ascending from a depth of 11 Mm. We model the Coriolis effect using the f-plane approximation, that only considers and acts on horizontal flows. On the Sun, Joy's law is weak and is only evident as an average over many active regions. To achieve a measurable effect in a single simulation, we consider a rotation rate 110 times faster than the Sun. The simulation shows that the flux tube emerges at the surface with a tilt angle consistent with Joy's law when scaled to the Sun's slower rotation, and the tilt angle does not substantially change after emergence. This shows that the Coriolis force acting on flows horizontal to the surface within the near-surface convection zone is consistent with Joy's law.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15935
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Coriolis force acting on near-surface horizontal flows during simulations of flux emergence produces a tilt angle consistent with Joy's law on the Sun
Roland-Batty, William
Schunker, Hannah
Cameron, Robert H.
Przybylski, Damien
Gizon, Laurent
Pontin, David I.
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Joy's law describes the tilt of bipolar active regions on the Sun away from an east-west orientation, where the flux of the polarity concentrated at the prograde side tends to be closer to the equator than the polarity on the retrograde side. Joy's law is attributed to the Coriolis force because of the observed increase in tilt angle at higher latitudes. This tilt plays a crucial role in some solar dynamo models. Our goal is to model the effects of the Coriolis force on a flux tube as it rises through the near-surface convection zone. We use a three-dimensional Cartesian magnetohydrodynamic simulation of an untwisted flux tube ascending from a depth of 11 Mm. We model the Coriolis effect using the f-plane approximation, that only considers and acts on horizontal flows. On the Sun, Joy's law is weak and is only evident as an average over many active regions. To achieve a measurable effect in a single simulation, we consider a rotation rate 110 times faster than the Sun. The simulation shows that the flux tube emerges at the surface with a tilt angle consistent with Joy's law when scaled to the Sun's slower rotation, and the tilt angle does not substantially change after emergence. This shows that the Coriolis force acting on flows horizontal to the surface within the near-surface convection zone is consistent with Joy's law.
title Coriolis force acting on near-surface horizontal flows during simulations of flux emergence produces a tilt angle consistent with Joy's law on the Sun
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15935