Studies pinpoint Sun's magnetic engine deep below surface
Two recent studies reshape scientists' view of the Sun's hidden magnetic interior. Researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology analyzed nearly 30 years of solar oscillation data from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Solar Dynamics Observatory and the ground-based Global Oscillation Network Group. Their findings, published in Nature's Scientific Reports, identify the tachocline a thin boundary layer about 200,000 kilometers beneath the surface as the likely origin of the solar dynamo.
This layer separates the Sun's turbulent outer convection zone from its stable radiative interior. The team detected migrating rotation bands deep inside that form a butterfly-shaped flow pattern, mirroring sunspot migration on the surface. The pattern traces back to the tachocline, equivalent to stacking 16 Earths in depth, challenging a 2024 Nature study that placed the dynamo closer to the surface.
In a separate study, scientists at NYU Abu Dhabi's Center for Astrophysics and Space Science reported detection of previously unknown large-scale magneto-Rossby waves deep in the Sun. Published in Nature Astronomy, their analysis of over a decade of helioseismic data revealed global waves shaped by internal magnetism, theorized for decades but now observed convincingly.
These waves offer insights into the Sun's magnetic structure. Both discoveries aid space weather forecasting. Solar eruptions like flares and coronal mass ejections disrupt satellites, navigation signals, communications and power grids on Earth. Models must now account for convection zone depths, including the tachocline, and these waves could probe other active stars.
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