The solar tachocline.

Acoustic sounding of the Sun reveals that the variation of angular velocity with latitude is independent of depth in the convection zone. By contrast, deep within the radiative zone, the rotation appears to be rigid. The transition between the two rotation laws occurs in a thin, unresolved layer that we here call the tachocline. This paper is an examination of the structure and previous evolution of this layer. We assume that the stress exerted by the convection zone is prescribed, much as oceanographers take the wind stress on the sea surface as given.