  An essential ingredient in kinematic dynamo models is the velocity field
within the solar convection zone. In particular, the differential rotation is
now well constrained by helioseismic observations. Helioseismology also gives
us information about the depth-dependence of the meridional circulation in the
near-surface layers. The typical velocity inputs used in solar dynamo models,
however, continue to be an analytic fit to the observed differential rotation
and a theoretically constructed meridional flow profile that matches only the
peak flow speed at the surface. Here we take the first steps towards realistic
helioseismic data assimilation, by presenting methodologies for constructing
differential rotation and meridional circulation profiles that more closely
conform to the observational constraints currently available. We also present
simulations driven by the assimilated rotation and four plausible profiles for
the internal meridional circulation -- all of which match the helioseismically
inferred near-surface depth-dependence, but whose magnitudes are made to vary.
We discuss how the results compare with those that are driven by purely
analytic fits. Our results indicate that the latitudinal shear of the rotation
in the bulk of the solar convection zone plays a more important role, than
either the tachocline or surface radial shear, in the induction of toroidal
field. We also find that it is the speed of the equatorward counter-flow in the
meridional flow at the base of the convection zone, and not how far into the
radiative interior it penetrates, that primarily determines the dynamo cycle
period. Given that improved helioseismic constraints are expected to be
available in the future, our analysis lays the basis for assimilating these
data within dynamo models.
