Is meridional circulation important in modelling irregularities of the solar cycle?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how variations in meridional circulation influence solar cycle irregularities using a flux transport dynamo model, highlighting the significance of turbulent diffusivity in reproducing observed features.

Contribution

It demonstrates that fluctuating meridional circulation can explain key solar cycle irregularities when combined with high turbulent diffusivity in the model.

Findings

Fluctuating meridional circulation reproduces the Waldmeier effect.

The model can simulate grand minima with circulation variations.

High turbulent diffusivity is essential for accurate modeling.

Abstract

We explore the importance of meridional circulation variations in modelling the irregularities of the solar cycle by using the flux transport dynamo model. We show that a fluctuating meridional circulation can reproduce some features of the solar cycle like the Waldmeier effect and the grand minimum. However, we get all these results only if the value of the turbulent diffusivity in the convection zone is reasonably high.