Granulation and supergranulation as convective modes in the solar envelope

Abstract

The stability of linear convective modes in the solar convection zone is investigated by incorporating the mechanical and thermal effects of turbulence through the eddy transport coefficients. The inclusion of turbulent thermal conductivity and viscosity, calculated in the framework of the mixing length approximation, is demonstrated to have a profound influence on the convective growth rates. The solar envelope model of Spruit (1977) is used to show that that most rapidly growing fundamental mode and the first harmonic are in reasonable accord with the observed features of granulation and supergranulation, respectively.