Solar Surface Convection

Han Uitenbroek

I will discuss the great progress that has been made in magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of solar surface convection. These simulations now closely resemble the observed solar structure, and are a clear example how ab-initio numerical modeling can lead to greater insight into the physics of stellar atmospheres. I will show what physics needs to go into the simulations to make them realistic, and how they have shed light on the deeper layers of the solar atmosphere, where we cannot directly observe.

One striking result of the numerical simulations has been the downward revision of the solar oxygen and carbon abundance by almost a factor of two. I will discuss how this result comes about, and how it might be resolved. I will end with an example of how the simulations still do not quantitatively reproduce all the behavior of the real Sun, in showing that the observed contrast in the molecular G-band is considerably over-predicted.