Production of sunspots and their effects on the corona and solar wind: Insights from a new 3D flux-transport dynamo model

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new 3D flux-transport dynamo model that simulates sunspot production and examines its effects on the solar corona and wind, providing insights into solar magnetic cycles.

Contribution

A novel 3D numerical model that generates sunspots and studies their influence on the solar corona and wind, linking interior magnetic processes to surface and heliospheric phenomena.

Findings

Sunspots can reverse polar magnetic fields periodically.

Magnetic flux transport influences corona topology.

Model reproduces observed solar wind structures.

Abstract

We present a three-dimensional numerical model for the generation and evolution of the magnetic field in the solar convection zone, in which sunspots are produced and contribute to the cyclic reversal of the large-scale magnetic field. We then assess the impact of this dynamo-generated field on the structure of the solar corona and solar wind. This model solves the induction equation in which the velocity field is prescribed. This velocity field is a combination of a solar-like differential rotation and meridional circulation. We develop an algorithm that enables the magnetic flux produced in the interior to be buoyantly transported towards the surface to produce bipolar spots. We find that those tilted bipolar magnetic regions contain a sufficient amount of flux to periodically reverse the polar magnetic field and sustain dynamo action. We then track the evolution of these magnetic features at the surface during a few consecutive magnetic cycles and analyze their effects on the topology of the corona and on properties of the solar wind (distribution of streamers and coronal holes, and of slow and fast wind streams) in connection with current observations of the Sun.