INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMAGNETISM AND AERONOMY VOL. 7, GI1004, doi:10.1029/2005GI000138, 2007

Can cellular convection in a rotating spherical shell maintain both global and local magnetic fields?

R. D. Simitev
Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

F. H. Busse
Institute of Physics, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

Abstract

[1]  A convection-driven MHD dynamo in a rotating spherical shell, with clearly defined structural elements in the flow and magnetic field, is simulated numerically. Such dynamos can be called deterministic, in contrast to those explicitly dependent on the assumed properties of turbulence. The cases most interesting from the standpoint of studying the nature of stellar magnetism demonstrate the following features. On a global scale, the convective flows can maintain a "general" magnetic field with a sign-alternating dipolar component. Local (in many cases, bipolar) magnetic structures are associated with convection cells. Disintegrating local structures change into background fields, which drift toward the poles. From time to time, reversals of the magnetic fields in the polar regions occur, as "new" background fields expel the "old" fields.

Received 20 December 2005; accepted 24 October 2006; published 31 March 2007.

Keywords: Convection; MHD dynamo; Global and local magnetic fields.

Index Terms: 7524 Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy: Magnetic fields; 7537 Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy: Solar and stellar variability; 7599 Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy: General or miscellaneous.

Citation: Getling, A. V., R. D. Simitev, and F. H. Busse (2007), Can cellular convection in a rotating spherical shell maintain both global and local magnetic fields?, Int. J. Geomagn. Aeron., 7, GI1004, doi:10.1029/2005GI000138.