�Dynamo  accounts for Sun s weather cycle University of Chicago University of Leeds rightOriginal StudyPosted by Richard Mellor-Leeds on May 23 2013U. LEEDS (UK) / U. CHICAGO (US)  � Researchers have discovered what drives the generation of astrophysical magnetic fields like the Sun s.Scientists have known since the 18th century that the Sun regularly oscillates between periods of high and low solar activity in an 11-year cycle but have been unable to fully explain how this cycle is generated.It has become increasingly important to be able to understand the Sun �s magnetic activity as it is the changes in its magnetic field that are responsible for  �space weather � phenomena including solar flares and coronal mass ejections.When this weather heads in the direction of Earth it can damage satellites endanger astronauts on the International Space Station and cause power grid outages on the ground.The research published in Nature explains how the cyclical nature of these large-scale magnetic fields emerges providing a solution to the mathematical equations governing fluids and electromagnetism for a large astrophysical body.The mechanism known as a dynamo builds on a solution to a reduced set of equations first proposed in the 1950s which could explain the regular oscillation but which appeared to break down when applied to objects with high electrical conductivity.The mechanism takes into account the  �shear � effect of mass movement of the ionised gas known as plasma which makes up the Sun. More importantly it does so in the extreme parameter regime that is relevant to astrophysical bodies. �Previously dynamos for large highly conducting bodies such as the Sun would be overwhelmed by small-scale fluctuations in the magnetic field. Here we have demonstrated a new mechanism involving a shear flow which served to damp these small-scale variations revealing the dominant large-scale pattern � says co-author Steve Tobias professor at the University of Leeds � School of Mathematics.In addition this mechanism could be used to describe other large spinning astronomical bodies with large-scale magnetic fields such as galaxies.The dynamo was developed through simulations using the high-performance computing facilities located at the University of Leeds. �The fact that it took 50 years and huge supercomputers shows how complicated the dynamo process really is � says Professor Fausto Cattaneo of the University of Chicago �s department of astronomy and astrophysics.The presence of spots on the Sun has been known since antiquity and further analyzed after the invention of the telescope by Galileo in the 16th century. However their cyclic nature with periods of high activity (lots of sunspots) and low activity (few sunspots) following each other was not identified until the 18th century.At the start of the 20th century it was then recognized that these sunspots were the result of the Sun �s magnetic field. Since then much effort has been devoted to understanding what processes lead to the formation of sunspots and the origin of their cyclic behavior.The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the National Science Foundation-sponsored Center for Magnetic Self-Organization at the University of Chicago partially funded the research.Source: University of LeedsYou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.