Meridional circulation and turbulence in surface layers of the stars (Q759582)

The authors derive an expression for meridional circulations in the radiative envelopes of rotating stars. Their estimates of velocities in typical early-type stars suggest that the motions are turbulent and can account for the ''microturbulence'' and hot coronae observed for these objects. They show that for a rigidly rotating polytrope the pressure, density, temperature and opacity are constant on potential surfaces. However the equipotential surfaces are not spherical so the radiative flux varies with latitude. This variation is balanced by the heat flux carried by the meridional circulation. The authors start from the radiative transfer equation for a gray atmosphere and use the Eddington approximation to get expressions for the mean intensity and the radiative flux. They then calculate the variations in the radiation field to first order in a small perturbation. At the outer boundary (zero optical depth) they suggest a new boundary condition requiring variations in the mean intensity to vanish on potential surfaces. This boundary condition then gives reasonable estimates of the meridional circulation velocities near unit optical depth.