The detailed dynamical behavior of the tachocline region is currently poorly understood. Candidate physical phenomena that participate in the dynamics of the tachocline begin with down-welling fluid from the convection zone. Such convective overshoot disturbs the upper portion of the stable interior and is thought to generate gravity waves that propagate downward. The shear in the tachocline may induce overturning and breaking of the gravity waves, resulting in local patches and layers of anisotropic turbulence and mean-flow acceleration. Furthermore, strong magnetic fields influence the evolution, dynamics, and anisotropic mixing of the region.
Headway is made piecemeal, as researchers attack specific aspects of the problem.
New techniques and algorithms must be developed and implemented. Without the availability of resources like those at SDSC, progress in modeling this important region of the solar interior would be impossible. Time series depicting the generation of gravity waves in a stable layer from the impact of a thermal plume from above. The top half of the numerical domain is shown. Figure 1 shows a pseudo-spectral simulation of an isolated heavy plume descending from a modeled solar convetion zone.