Toward a model of a two-component solar cycle

In a two-component cycle, the generation of the dipole field by a separate mechanism as well as the strong link occurring, with a 5–6-yr delay, between the sunspot cycle and the preceding dipole cycle, sets in new terms the problem of the mechanisms at the origin of the solar cycle. In this paper, from various series of synoptic solar data, we identify some of the mechanisms to incorporate in a model of a two-component solar cycle. The first one concerns the dipole field which is not a surface phenomenon. We establish the cyclic behaviour and the various properties of the dipole-field sources which are deep-seated in the solar interior and have a rigid rotation of about 27 days. We identify two cyclic phenomena which, in each hemisphere, link with a 5–6-yr delay, the dipole field generation which occurs at high latitudes, to the bipolar field emergence occurring at sunspot latitudes. They are the signatures of a coupling mechanism taking place deep in the solar interior. Then we study the constraints imposed on the mechanisms of the sunspot field generation both by a two-component cycle and by new observational results. These last ones concern the links occurring between the birth of new sunspot groups and the occurrence of pre-existing features of the photospheric field and of pivot-points in rigid rotation at 27.3 days.Our final discussion is devoted to a first sketch of the distribution of the relevant mechanisms among separate regions of the convective zone. Unfortunately neither the helioseismology, nor our data analysis has yet supplied us with appropriate pieces of information for building a physical model of this two-component cycle.