The 22-year cycle of the sun

The 22-yr solar cycle is being explained as due to a spin-aligned magnetic quadrupole frozen into the (radiative) core. Differential rotation of the poorly conducting convection zone gives rise to flux winding and to an alternating dominance, near the surface, of one of the two constituent dipoles. Equatorial superrotation and polar subrotation are stabilized by the same magnetic flux that transfers angular momentum from the (radiative) core to the (escaping) solar wind. The time- and radius-dependent magnetic torque is also responsible for the rigid and twisting oscillations of a thin surface layer, and for the relative velocities of different tracers.