The Contribution of Solar Magnetic Regions to the Residual Meridional and Zonal Flows

Abstract

Abstract We estimate the contributions to the solar-cycle variation of solar meridional and zonal flows near the surface expected solely from local magnetic regions. Maps of flows near magnetic regions are obtained using helioseismic holography and averaged over ensembles of such regions with similar magnetic flux. These averaged flows are assigned to the positions and times of all magnetic regions identified from daily magnetograms over an 11 yr period. Residuals are obtained after averaging both meridional and zonal-flow components over longitude for each Carrington rotation and subtracting the temporal mean at each latitude. Results indicate that magnetic regions produce solar-cycle variations of both components in the active latitude range with peak amplitudes of about 1 m s−1, which represents only a fraction of the known variations in either the residual zonal or meridional flow with amplitudes around 3 and 5 m s−1, respectively. Thus it is unlikely that active regions, and compact magnetic concentrations in general, are the primary source of the 11 yr variation in these global flows. A threshold magnetic flux of 5 × 1020 Mx, below which no significant flows are observed, is identified as a check on the completeness of the set of magnetic regions. We also find that inflows around most magnetic regions are confined to within 10°–12° of their centers, in contrast with recent evidence of more extended inflows.