Importance of convection for emerging active regions on the Sun

The emergence of magnetic field from the interior of the Sun generates a poloidal magnetic field from rising toroidal magnetic field. Solar active regions and sunspots are the strongest concentrations of magnetic field on the surface, and how they emerge is a crucial, but poorly understood aspect of the solar dynamo. Only since the advent of the SDO/HMI monitoring campaign has it been possible to capture the emergence process of hundreds of active regions in observations of the magnetic field, Doppler velocity and intensity continuum. By measuring the average motion of the polarities, the average surface velocities and average supergranulation pattern it is clear that convection plays an important role in the emergence process in the Sun. In order to broadly understand the dynamo mechanism, we need to understand the relationship between convection and the surface magnetic field structure on other Sun-like stars.