Toroidal magnetic field structure of the solar convective envelope inferred from the initial observations of the sunspots

► Toroidal magnetic field structure of the solar convective envelope. ► Inference of toroidal magnetic field structure from sunspots. ► Parker’s (1955) flux tube model. ► Hiremath’s (2002) anchoring depth information from the sunspots. ► Toroidal magnetic field structure inferred by helioseismology. For different life spans, we measure the line of sight component of the magnetic field structure of the bipolar sunspots from the SOHO/MDI magnetograms during their initial appearance on the surface and toroidal component of the magnetic field structure is separated. Irrespective of their sizes, strength of the measured line of sight component of the magnetic field structure varies from ∼450 G for the life span of 2 days to ∼300 G for the life span of 12 days. Where as strength of the estimated surface toroidal component of the bipolar spots varies from ∼10 G for the life span of 2 days to ∼700 G for the life span of 12 days. We use rederived Parker’s (1955a) flux tube model in spherical coordinates and Hiremath’s (2002) life span anchoring depth information to infer the strength of line of sight and toroidal components of the magnetic field structures at different anchoring depths of the bipolar spots in the convective envelope and the important findings are: (i) both the line of sight and toroidal components of the magnetic field structures at the sites of sunspots’ different anchoring depths in the convective envelope have a similar radial variation and the strength (∼10 4 G near base of the convective envelope to ∼100 G near the surface) and, (ii) rate of emergence of toroidal magnetic field structure near base of the convective envelope is estimated to be ∼100 times the rate of emergence of toroidal magnetic field structure near the surface.