The mean size of supergranulation has been found to vary over time with a period of 3-5 days. We have used full-disk Doppler images from the Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) to verify that these fluctuations are solar in origin.
Flow system in an average supergranule is compared to the moat flow around axisymmetric sunspots. Both phenomena are very similar, only the outflow in the moat is distorted due to the proper motion of the sunspot with respect to the local frame of rest and moat is a purely downflow region.
Observed seismic upper bounds on large-scale lateral (horizontal) convective-velocity amplitudes in the solar interior at the depth r/R = 0.96 do not agree with modeling results derived at a similar depth from global convection simulations. The observations of low convective-velocity amplitudes throw into question our understanding of thermal and angular momentum transport in the Sun.
Analysis of a large number of supergranules observed with HMI and simulations with a convectively stabilized solar model imply that the average supergranular cell has a peak upflow of 240 m s-1 at a depth of 2.3 Mm and a corresponding peak outward horizontal flow of 700 m s-1 at a depth of 1.6 Mm.