Removal of Active Region Inflows Reveals a Weak Solar Cycle Scale Trend in the Near-surface Meridional Flow

Using time-distance local helioseismology flow maps within 1 Mm of the solar photosphere, we detect inflows toward activity belts that contribute to solar-cycle scale variations in the near-surface meridional flow. These inflows stretch out as far as 30° away from the active region centroids. If active region neighborhoods are excluded, the solar-cycle-scale variation in the background meridional flow diminishes to below 2 m s^-1, but still shows systematic variations in the absence of active regions between sunspot cycles 24 and 25. We therefore propose that the near-surface meridional flow is a three-component flow made up of a constant baseline flow profile that can be derived from quiet-Sun regions, variations due to inflows around active regions, and solar-cycle-scale variation of about 2 m s^-1. Torsional oscillation, on the other hand, is found to be a global phenomenon, i.e., exclusion of active region neighborhoods does not significantly affect its magnitude or phase. This nonvariation in torsional oscillation with distance away from active regions and the three-component breakdown of the near-surface meridional flow serve as vital constraints for solar dynamo models and surface flux-transport simulations.