Photospheric subrotation, differential rotation and zonal wind bands: A reverse pirouette

Abstract

Recently Mayr et al. (1980) have suggested that the superrotation of planetary atmospheres could, in principle, be understood as a ‘pirouette’. Equatorial heating is pumping atmospheric material toward the poles, and with a concomitant reduction in moment of inertia, the atmosphere has the tendency of spinning up. On the Sun, the core is assumed to be rotating with a period of about 12 days (Dicke, 1976; Knight et al., 1979) while the overlaying ‘mantle’ convection zone has a solid body component of about 27 days. We propose here that this phenomenon could simply be understood as a ‘reverse pirouette’. Our model is similar to the models put forth by Kippenhahn (1963), Weiss (1965), Durney (1968), Busse (1970), Yoshimura (1972), Gilman (1974), and Gierasch (1974). Whereas the models listed provided solutions of valid equations and computer analyses, they lack a simple physical picture to explain the phenomenon. In our case, we have the solar oblateness conventionally providing added heat input at the poles. The result is the large scale transport of material toward the equator giving rise to subrotation. The model thus facilitates an understanding of the formation of a slowly rotating convection zone above the more rapidly rotating core. The latitudinal photospheric differential rotation is interpreted as a ‘second order’ effect associated with horizontal momentum transport. The recent observations of zonal winds drifting equatorward with a 22-year period (Howard and LaBonte, 1980) may be related by this model as a third order effect from a similar periodicity in differential solar heating (pole to equator).