Understanding the Origins of Solar Magnetic Activity with COFFIES

The solar activity that drives space weather is a Consequence of Fields and Flows in the Interior and Exterior of the Sun (COFFIES). The NASA Heliophysics Division selected the COFFIES Drive Science Center to advance our understanding of how the Sun generates the quasi-cyclic magnetic field that extends throughout the heliosphere. Researchers in surface flow observations, helioseismology analysis, dynamo modeling, and stellar convection theory work together in COFFIES to address four key science questions:

1. What drives varying large-scale plasma motions, e.g. meridional flow and differential rotation?
2. How do flows interact with the magnetic field to create varying solar activity cycles?
3. What causes active regions to emerge when and where they do during the solar cycle?
4. How is our understanding of solar activity informed by fields and flows on other stars?

To help organize our efforts, COFFIES has identified three overarching science themes:

• The TACHOCLINE, a thin layer of rotational shear at the bottom of the convection zone, which potentially holds the key to connecting the dynamo field that operates on large temporal and spatial scales with medium-scale features such as active region complexes and evolving zonal flows.
• FLUX TRANSPORT & EMERGENCE throughout the convection zone that connects the deep interior dynamo with magnetic field and flow patterns observed at and near the surface.
• The NEAR-SURFACE SHEAR LAYER that filters and possibly creates many of the surface and near-surface convection and flux features we observe; but which is not well understood and whose role in the activity cycle is unclear.
  
  

Learning how to incorporate data in solar cycle models will improve our ability to forecast long-term activity. The COFFIES team formally includes researchers from 14 institutions and stimulates research regarding the nature and impacts of stellar activity cycles in the space-weather, heliophysics, planetary, and astrophysics communities. COFFIES welcomes external collaborations. More information can be found at COFFIES.stanford.edu