Revealing the Surface and Subsurface Dynamics of the Sun’s Polar Regions with Observations and 3D Radiative Hydrodynamic Modeling

The polar regions of the Sun are of great interest because of the correlation between the polar magnetic flux at a solar minimum and the strength of the following activity cycle. The current observational capabilities allow us to observe the polar regions only twice per year when the rotation axis of the Sun has a maximum inclination to the Earth’s orbit. In this presentation, we discuss recent achievements in 3D radiative hydrodynamics imulations of the subsurface and surface dynamics in the high-latitude and polar regions, assuming the Carrington rotation rate and the rotation rates from helioseismic inferences and surface observations. We focus on analysis of latitudinal variations of a thin subsurface rotational shear layer – the leptocline.ThisanalysisisbeingusedforinterpretationofobservationsfromtwoNASAspacemissions, Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI),to explore the coupling between subsurface and surface dynamics.