Formation of Jets and Equatorial Superrotation on Jupiter

By Tapio Schneider, Junjun Liu. 2008

150 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ThezonalflowinJupiter’suppertroposphereisorganizedintoalternatingretrogradeandprogradejets,with a prograde (superrotating) jet at the equator. Existing models posit as the driver of the flow either differential radiativeheatingoftheatmosphereorintrinsicheatfluxesemanatingfromthedeepinterior;however,theydo not reproduce all large-scale features of Jupiter’s jets and thermal structure. Here it is shown that the difficulties in accounting for Jupiter’s jets and thermal structure resolve if the effects of differential radiative heating and intrinsic heat fluxes are considered together, and if upper-tropospheric dynamics are linked to a magnetohydrodynamic(MHD)dragthatactsdeepintheatmosphereandaffectsthezonalflowawayfrombut not near the equator. Baroclinic eddies generated by differential radiative heating can account for the offequatorial jets; meridionally propagating equatorial Rossby waves generated by intrinsic convective heat fluxescanaccountfortheequatorialsuperrotation.Thezonalflowextendsdeeplyintotheatmosphere,withits speed changing with depth, away from the equator up to depths at which the MHD drag acts. The theory is supported by simulations with an energetically consistent general circulation model of Jupiter’s outer atmosphere. A simulation that incorporates differential radiative heating and intrinsic heat fluxes reproduces Jupiter’s observed jets and thermal structure and makes testable predictions about as yet unobserved aspects thereof. A control simulation that incorporates only differential radiative heating but not intrinsic heat fluxes producesoff-equatorialjetsbutnoequatorialsuperrotation;anothercontrolsimulationthatincorporatesonly intrinsic heat fluxes but not differential radiative heating produces equatorial superrotation but no offequatorial jets. The proposed mechanisms for the formation of jets and equatorial superrotation likely act in the atmospheres of all giant planets.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/422c527e12e2a0b694886363231fe39598087e2e

How researchers see this paper

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. F. Debras
2. G. Chabrier
3. A. Showman
4. Y. Kaspi
5. G. Flierl
6. Jon Fortney
7. M. Marley
8. C. Conroy

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

1. A. Showman
2. G. Chabrier
3. F. Debras
4. Jon Fortney
5. M. Marley

Citations in the corpus

• New Models of Jupiter in the Context of Juno and Galileo (2019, methodology): “…show that the horizontal variation of temperature due to the winds is of the order of a few percents in latitude and longitude, with a maximum at the equator (as confirmed by the observations of Fisher et al. (2016) and the temperature profiles from GCM calculations of Schneider and Liu (2009)).”
• The deep wind structure of the giant planets: Results from an anelastic general circulation model (2009, background): “Such processes could cause formation of multiple zonal jets in the higher latitudes (Kaspi and Flierl, 2007; Schneider and Liu, 2009).”