ABSTRACT
Convection in the solar envelope globally transports nearly all the incident radiative flux from the interior, yet the dynamics of solar granulation as observed at the photosphere appears dominated by local radiative cooling and new downflow formation. In this paper we discuss how the details of granule fragmentation and evolution may be understood in these terms. We also examine the role of downflow plumes in convective heat transport and assess the stability of compressible starting plumes with depth.
