Authors: Bradley W. Hindman (University of Colorado Boulder), J.R. Fuentes (University of Colorado Boulder), Junwei Zhao (Stanford University), Catherine Blume (University of Colorado Boulder), Maria Camisassa (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya), Nicholas Featherstone (Southwest Research Institute), Lydia Korre (University of Colorado Boulder), Loren Matilsky (University of California, Santa Cruz)

We apply the ray-theory averaging kernels that are used in time-distance helioseismology to the meridional flows achieved in a sequence of numerical simulations. The numerical simulations cover the lower 5 density scale heights of the Sun’s convection zone (reaching up to 0.98 R) and span a range of Rossby numbers between 0.125 and 1.0. All have a solar-like differential rotation and possess multiple meridional circulation cells in each hemisphere, particularly at low-latitudes. By convolving the averaging kernels with the simulated flow fields, we generate a reconstructed flow field that estimates what a seismic analysis would measure. We find that all of the flow fields within the upper half of the convection zone are well-reproduced, even those with near-surface reversals in flow direction. On the other hand, the lower half of the convection zone can suffer significant contamination from near surface flows due to side lobes in the averaging kernels. Only in the models with the fastest flows at depth do deep cells survive the convolution process.