Solar Surface Flow Simulations at Ultra-High Resolution

The dynamics of the surface layers of our Sun is of interest to solar and stellar astrophysics but also to the geophysical sciences. Since the solar surface dynamics operates on a vast range of temporal and spatial scales, numerical simulations of these processes require supercomputers for their study. This holds in particular, if shear driven turbulence generated by the vigorous convection present in the outer layers of our Sun is to be retrieved from within the calculation itself, rather than being modelled explicitly or implicitly. Our project SOLARSURF at HLRB-II aims at performing simulations of solar surface convection at ultra-high resolution to investigate the effects of shear driven turbulence and the generation of acoustic energy in the uppermost layers of the solar convection zone. The simulations are also performed as a reference for distinguishing hydrodynamical from magnetohydrodynamical phenomena generally and particularly in their role in heating the solar chromosphere. We focus on magnetically quiescent solar regions with ordinary surface granulation. In this paper we compare some first results of our simulations with previous results obtained in 2D and at lower resolution in 3D and present a brief outlook on future project activities.