Study of possible subsurface influences on the emerging active regions

The large-scale distribution of the orientations of emerging sunspot groups has been studied for the year 1977. It is probable that the decimations from the azimuthal directions are not entirely randomly scattered, but they can be governed also by subsurface velocity fields. If this assumption is correct, the most probable internal velocity distribution is a non-axisymmetric (columnar) giant convection pattern with a longitudinal wave number l = 11 rotating slightly slower than the Carrington system, on the basis of the given material.