A Solar Dynamo Model Driven by Mean-Field Alpha and Babcock-Leighton Sources: Fluctuations, Grand-Minima-Maxima and Hemispheric Asymmetry in Sunspot Cycles

Abstract

Extreme solar activity fluctuations and the occurrence of solar grand minima and maxima episodes, are well established, observed features of the solar cycle. Nevertheless, such extreme activity fluctuations and the dynamics of the solar cycle during Maunder minima-like episodes remain ill-understood. We explore the origin of such extreme solar activity fluctuations and the role of dual poloidal field sources, namely the Babcock-Leighton mechanism and the mean-field alpha effect in the dynamics of the solar cycle. We mainly concentrate on entry and recovery from grand minima episodes such as the Maunder minimum and the dynamics of the solar cycle. We use a kinematic solar dynamo model with a novel set-up in which stochastic perturbations force two distinct poloidal field alpha effects. We explore different regimes of operation of these poloidal sources with distinct operating thresholds, to identify the importance of each. The perturbations are implemented independently in both hemispheres which allows one to study the level of hemispheric coupling and hemispheric asymmetry in the emergence of sunspots. From the simulations performed we identify a few different ways in which the dynamo can enter a grand minima episode. While fluctuations in any of the $\alpha$ effects can trigger intermittency we find that the mean-field alpha effect is crucial for the recovery of the solar cycle from a grand minima episode which a Babcock-Leighton source alone, fails to achieve. Our simulations also demonstrate other cycle dynamics. We conclude that stochastic fluctuations in two interacting poloidal field sources working with distinct operating thresholds is a viable candidate for triggering episodes of extreme solar activity and that the mean-field alpha effect capable of working on weak, sub-equipartition fields is critical to the recovery of the solar cycle following an extended solar minimum.

(References updated!)

References in corpus (10)

• Persistent Magnetic Wreaths in a Rapidly Rotating Sun
• Flux-transport dynamos with Lorentz force feedback on differential rotation and meridional flow: Saturation mechanism and torsional oscillations
• Exploring the Physical Basis of Solar Cycle Predictions: Flux Transport Dynamics and Persistence of Memory in Advection versus Diffusion Dominated Solar Convection Zones
• Importance of Meridional Circulation in Flux Transport Dynamo: The Possibility of a Maunder-like Grand Minimum
• Turbulent magnetic pumping in a Babcock-Leighton solar dynamo model
• Effects of fluctuation on alpha-omega dynamo models
• Grand Minima and North-South Asymmetry of Solar Activity
• Magnetoconvection and dynamo coefficients III: alpha-effect and magnetic pumping in the rapid rotation regime
• Studies of grand minima in sunspot cycles from a flux transport solar dynamo model
• Modeling a Maunder Minimum

Cited by in corpus (57)

• The Maunder minimum (1645--1715) was indeed a Grand minimum: A reassessment of multiple datasets
• Prediction of the strength and timing of sunspot cycle 25 reveal decadal-scale space environmental conditions
• Progress in Solar Cycle Predictions: Sunspot Cycles 24-25 in Perspective
• Solar activity during the Holocene: the Hallstatt cycle and its consequence for grand minima and maxim
• Solar Cycle Variability Induced by Tilt Angle Scatter in a Babcock--Leighton Solar Dynamo Model
• A coupled $2\times 2$D Babcock-Leighton solar dynamo model. II. Reference dynamo solutions
• Models for the long-term variations of solar activity
• A Stochastically Forced Time Delay Solar Dynamo Model: Self-Consistent Recovery from a Maunder-like Grand Minimum Necessitates a Mean-Field Alpha Effect
• Origin of the hemispheric asymmetry of solar activity
• Understanding solar cycle variability
• Long-term modulation of solar cycles
• Evolution of solar and stellar dynamo theory
• Physical Models for Solar Cycle Predictions
• Mean field models of flux transport dynamo and meridional circulation in the Sun and stars
• Recovery from Maunder-like Grand Minima in a Babcock--Leighton Solar Dynamo Model
• The Origin of Parity Changes in the Solar Cycle
• A proposed paradigm for solar cycle dynamics mediated via turbulent pumping of magnetic flux in Babcock-Leighton type solar dynamos
• How supercritical are stellar dynamos, or why do old main-sequence dwarfs not obey gyrochronology?
• Nonlinear dynamo models using quasi-biennial oscillations constrained by sunspot area data
• Solar large-scale magnetic field and cycle patterns in solar dynamo
• A 3D kinematic Babcock Leighton solar dynamo model sustained by dynamic magnetic buoyancy and flux transport processes
• a dynamo-based prediction of solar cycle 25
• Modelling variability of solar activity cycles
• Solar-Cycle Characteristics in Kodaikanal Sunspot Area: North--South Asymmetry, Phase Distribution and Gnevyshev Gap
• Comparison of physics-based prediction models of solar cycle 25
• Signature of the turbulent component of solar dynamo on active region scales and its association with flaring activity
• Oscillator models of the solar cycle: Towards the development of inversion methods
• Stellar mid-life crisis: subcritical magnetic dynamos of solar-like stars and the breakdown of gyrochronology
• A Babcock-Leighton-type Solar Dynamo Operating in the Bulk of the Convection Zone
• Hysteresis between distinct modes of turbulent dynamos
• Simulation Study of Hemispheric Phase-Asymmetry in the Solar Cycle
• Nature of grand minima and maxima from fully non-linear Flux-Transport Dynamos
• Temporal evolutions and quasi-periodic variations present in the sunspot number and group sunspot area data measured at Kodaikanal Observatory for solar cycles 14 to 24
• Dynamo modelling for cycle variability and occurrence of grand minima in Sun-like stars: Rotation rate dependence
• Dynamo Saturation in Rapidly Rotating Solar-Type Stars
• Can the long-term hemispheric asymmetry of solar activity result from fluctuations in dynamo parameters?
• A New Challenge to Solar Dynamo Models from Helioseismic Observations: The Latitudinal Dependence of the Progression of the Solar Cycle
• Does the mean-field alpha effect have any impact on the memory of the solar cycle?
• Discovery of a relation between the decay rate of the Sun's magnetic dipole and the growth rate of the following sunspot cycle: a new precursor for solar cycle prediction
• Evidence of persistence of weak magnetic cycles driven by meridional plasma flows during solar grand minima phases
• Is hemispheric asymmetry in the sunspot cycle solely governed by polar flux imbalance in the previous cycle?
• North-south asymmetry of solar dynamo in the current activity cycle
• Nonkinematic solar dynamo models with double-cell meridional circulation
• Long-term forcing of Sun's coronal field, open flux and cosmic ray modulation potential during grand minima, maxima and regular activity phases by the solar dynamo mechanism
• Solar Cycle Evolution of Filaments over a Century: Investigations with the Meudon and McIntosh Hand-drawn Archives
• Does nonaxisymmetric dynamo operate in the Sun?
• Doppler images and the underlying dynamo. The case of AF Leporis
• On effects of surface bipolar magnetic regions on the convection zone dynamo
• Causal Interaction between the subsurface rotation rate residuals and radial magnetic field in different timescales
• On the origin of long-term modulation in the Sun's magnetic activity cycle
• An application of a solar-type dynamo model for Epsilon Eridani
• Planetary Influences on the Solar Cycle: A Nonlinear Dynamics Approach
• Hemispheric analysis of the magnetic flux in regular and irregular solar active regions
• Observation-Based Iterative Map for Solar Cycles. I. Nature of Solar Cycle Variability
• Extreme Fluctuations in the Sun's Activity over the Modern Maximum: Understanding the Enigmatic Solar Cycles 19-20
• Recovery of the Solar Cycle from Maunder-like Grand Minima Episodes: A Quantification of the Necessary Polar Flux Threshold through Solar Dynamo Simulations
• Can meridional flow variations explain the observed rising/declining phase asymmetry in the solar cycle?