Solar dynamo
The solar dynamo is the physical process that generates the Sun's magnetic field. A dynamo, essentially a naturally occurring electric generator in the Sun's interior, produces electric currents and a magnetic field, following the laws of Ampère, Faraday and Ohm, as well as the laws of hydrodynamics, which together form the laws of magnetohydrodynamics. The detailed mechanism of the solar dynamo is not known and is the subject of current research.
Mechanism
A dynamo converts kinetic energy into electric-magnetic energy. An electrically conducting fluid with shear or more complicated motion, such as turbulence, can temporarily amplify a magnetic field through Lenz's law: fluid motion relative to a magnetic field induces electric currents in the fluid that distort the initial field. If the fluid motion is sufficiently complicated, it can sustain its own magnetic field, with adjective fluid amplification essentially balancing diffusive or ohmic decay. Such systems are called self-sustaining dynamos. The Sun is a self-sustaining dynamo that converts convective motion and differential rotation within the Sun to electric-magnetic energy.
