Invited review abstract

We present a review of the current understanding of flux emergence at the solar surface with a special emphasis on the role of turbulent convection and large scale flows on the magnetic structures. We first review the various attempts that have been made in the community to model the rise of toroidal structures through isentropic zones. Then I discuss the more recent studies that model fully developped turbulent convection. Finally I discuss how spherical effects, rotation and large scale flows improve the overall picture.