Anisotropic turbulence in weakly stratified rotating magnetoconvection

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to explore how magnetic fields and rotation influence turbulence anisotropy, heat flux, and flow patterns in magnetoconvection, revealing significant effects of magnetic field orientation and strength.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the anisotropic behavior of turbulence and heat transport in rotating magnetoconvection, highlighting the impact of magnetic field orientation and strength.

Findings

Turbulence correlation length depends on magnetic field strength and orientation.

Rotation enhances anisotropic turbulence behavior, even with weak magnetic fields.

Vertical turbulent heat flux increases slightly with stronger horizontal magnetic fields.

Abstract

Numerical simulations of the 3D MHD-equations that describe rotating magnetoconvection in a Cartesian box have been performed using the code NIRVANA. The characteristics of averaged quantities like the turbulence intensity and the turbulent heat flux that are caused by the combined action of the small-scale fluctuations are computed. The correlation length of the turbulence significantly depends on the strength and orientation of the magnetic field and the anisotropic behavior of the turbulence intensity induced by Coriolis and Lorentz force is considerably more pronounced for faster rotation. The development of isotropic behavior on the small scales -- as it is observed in pure rotating convection -- vanishes even for a weak magnetic field which results in a turbulent flow that is dominated by the vertical component. In the presence of a horizontal magnetic field the vertical turbulent heat flux slightly increases with increasing field strength, so that cooling of the rotating system is facilitated. Horizontal transport of heat is always directed westwards and towards the poles. The latter might be a source of a large-scale meridional flow whereas the first would be important in global simulations in case of non-axisymmetric boundary conditions for the heat flux.