Deep model simulation of polar vortices in gas giant atmospheres

@article{Garcia2020DeepMS,
  title={Deep model simulation of polar vortices in gas giant atmospheres},
  author={Ferran Garcia and Frank R N Chambers and Anna L. Watts},
  journal={Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year={2020}
}
The Cassini and Juno probes have revealed large coherent cyclonic vortices in the polar regions of Saturn and Jupiter, a dramatic contrast from the east-west banded jet structure seen at lower latitudes. Debate has centered on whether the jets are shallow, or extend to greater depths in the planetary envelope. Recent experiments and observations have demonstrated the relevance of deep convection models to a successful explanation of jet structure and cyclonic coherent vortices away from the… 
View PDF on arXiv
11 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
4
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
2

11 Citations

Oscillations and Stability of the Jupiter Polar Cyclones
Juno discovered the circumpolar cyclones polygons on Jupiter in 2017. Fundamental questions regarding Jovian cyclogenesis concern the formation mechanism and whether these cyclones are deep or…
Exploring Jupiter's Polar Deformation Lengths with High-resolution Shallow Water Modeling
The polar regions of Jupiter host a myriad of dynamically interesting phenomena, including vortex configurations, folded-filamentary regions (FFRs), and chaotic flows. Juno observations have provided…
Energy Exchanges in Saturn's Polar Regions From Cassini Observations: Eddy‐Zonal Flow Interactions
Saturn's polar regions (polewards of ∼63° planetocentric latitude) are strongly dynamically active with zonal jets, polar cyclones and the intriguing north polar hexagon (NPH) wave. Here we analyze…
The climate system and the second law of thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics implies a relationship between the net entropy export by the Earth and its internal irreversible entropy production. The application of this constraint for the…
Polar and mid-latitude vortices and zonal flows on Jupiter and Saturn
Zonal flow on Jupiter and Saturn consists of equatorial super–rotation and alternating East-West jet streams at higher latitudes. Interacting with these zonal flows, numerous vortices occur with…
Weak branch and multimodal convection in rapidly rotating spheres at low Prandtl number
The focus of this study is to investigate primary and secondary bifurcations to weakly nonlinear flows (weak branch) in convective rotating spheres in a regime where only strongly nonlinear…
Rotating thermal convection: surface turbulence observed with altimetry and thermal radiometry
The surface dynamics of the rotating thermal convection are examined in finely resolved laboratory flows. Deep rotating convection creates geostrophic turbulent flow at the surface, the regime of…
The number and location of Jupiter’s circumpolar cyclones explained by vorticity dynamics
The Juno mission observed that both poles of Jupiter have polar cyclones that are surrounded by a ring of circumpolar cyclones (CPCs). The north pole holds eight CPCs and the south pole possesses…
Real Schur flow computations, helicity fastening effects and Bagua-pattern cyclones
A semi-analytical algorithm is developed for simulating flows with the velocity gradient uniformly of the real Schur form. Computations for both decaying and driven cases are performed, exhibiting…
Interaction of Saturn’s Hexagon With Convective Storms
In March 2020, a convective storm erupted at planetographic latitude 76°N in the southern flank of Saturn’s long‐lived hexagonal wave. The storm reached a zonal size of 4,500 km and developed a tail…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 82 REFERENCES
Dynamical regimes of giant planet polar vortices
Simulation of equatorial and high-latitude jets on Jupiter in a deep convection model
TLDR
This work presents a numerical model of three-dimensional rotating convection in a relatively thin spherical shell that generates both types of jets and implies that Jupiter's latitudinal transition in jet width corresponds to a separation between the bottom-bounded flow structures in higher latitudes and the deep equatorial flows.
Weak Jets and Strong Cyclones: Shallow-Water Modeling of Giant Planet Polar Caps
AbstractGiant planet tropospheres lack a solid, frictional bottom boundary. The troposphere instead smoothly transitions to a denser fluid interior below. However, Saturn exhibits a hot, symmetric…
Turbulent convection in rapidly rotating spherical shells: A model for equatorial and high latitude jets on Jupiter and Saturn
A laboratory model for deep-seated jets on the gas giants
A laboratory study of turbulent flows reproduces the properties of jets in the atmospheres of gas giants, providing a better understanding of how these jets could extend deep into the planetary…
Convective heat transfer and the pattern of thermal emission on the gas giants
SUMMARY Jupiter and Saturn emit nearly twice the thermal energy they receive from the Sun. Although insolation decreases toward the poles, the large-scale outward heat flux is nearly uniform, with…
Mechanisms of Jet Formation on the Giant Planets
The giant planet atmospheres exhibit alternating prograde (eastward) and retrograde (westward) jets of different speeds and widths, with an equatorial jet that is prograde on Jupiter and Saturn and…
Clusters of cyclones encircling Jupiter’s poles
TLDR
It is reported that visible and infrared images obtained from above each pole by the Juno spacecraft during its first five orbits reveal persistent polygonal patterns of large cyclones.
Strong zonal winds from thermal convection in a rotating spherical shell
Zonal wind (ZW) generation by thermal convection in rotating spherical shells is studied using numerical calculations. Strong ZW accompany quasi‐geostrophic, high Rayleigh number convection in shells…
Zonal flow regimes in rotating anelastic spherical shells: an application to giant planets
...
...