An Investigation of Giant Cells and Associated Angular Momentum Transport

We have found strong evidence for the existence of giant convection cells within our sun which are responsible for the equatorward transport of angular momentum. These convective cells have long been theorized but have gone undetected since their expected velocity is more than an order of magnitude less than smaller convective features such as supergranules. To unmask their exceptionally weak signal we have taken a time average of vector velocity maps generated from local correlation tracking (henceforth referred to as LCT) of supergranules. Taking time averages of our hourly LCT velocity maps over entire Carrington rotations (~27 days) we find large convective features which persist through multiple rotations. Furthermore our averaged LCT velocity profiles correspond to a negative Reynolds stress in the northern hemisphere and a positive Reynolds stress in the southern hemisphere, consistent with the presence of giant cells.