Equatorial currents in the photosphere

From spectra photographed at Oxford in 1966 and 1968 sight-line velocities of the equatorial zone of the Sun are tabulated. After correction of these for limb effect an axisymmetric solution gives the zonal and meridional components of photospheric velocity. In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres of an equatorial zone of constant angular velocity there occurs at a latitude of some 10° a dominantly meridional current. The properties of the current are described, a possible origin of its meridional part proposed and some suggestions are made on why the current has hitherto escaped detection.