video: This movie shows four rotations of the Sun. The giant cell flow pattern is shown with colors (red for westerly winds and blue for easterly winds) and moving arrows (flow velocities are exaggerated by a factor of about 20). The flow patterns show the clockwise and counter-clockwise circulations, as well as the tendency for westerly flows to be toward the equator. This video relates to a paper that appeared in the 6 December, 2013, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by David Hathaway at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and colleagues was titled, "Giant Convection Cells Found on the Sun." view more
Credit: [Video courtesy David Hathaway/NASA]