3D Modeling of interactions between Jupiter’s ammonia clouds and large anticyclones

Palotai, Csaba; Dowling, T. E.; Fletcher, Leigh N.

doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.01.005

Cited by 27 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…There are NH 3 cloud spots and turbulent activities toward the northwest of the GRS, a region known as the "turbulent wake". This cloudy region is associated with the dynamic processes of the GRS (Palotai et al 2014). Based on the bright GRS on the methane-band map (Figures 4 and 5), we estimate that the area fraction of the GRS, S p , is 5%.…”

Section: Size Of the Weather Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotational Light Curves of Jupiter from Ultraviolet to Mid-infrared and Implications for Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets

Zhang

Fletcher

et al. 2019

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Rotational modulations are observed on brown dwarfs and directly imaged exoplanets, but the underlying mechanism is not well understood. Here, we analyze Jupiter's rotational light curves at 12 wavelengths from the ultraviolet (UV) to the mid-infrared (mid-IR). Peak-to-peak amplitudes of Jupiter's light curves range from sub percent to 4% at most wavelengths, but the amplitude exceeds 20% at 5 µm, a wavelength sensing Jupiter's deep troposphere. Jupiter's rotational modulations are primarily caused by discrete patterns in the cloudless belts instead of the cloudy zones. The lightcurve amplitude is dominated by the sizes and brightness contrasts of the Great Red Spot (GRS), expansions of the North Equatorial Belt (NEB), patchy clouds in the North Temperate Belt (NTB) and a train of hot spots in the NEB. In reflection, the contrast is controlled by upper tropospheric and stratospheric hazes, clouds, and chromophores in the clouds. In thermal emission, the small rotational variability is caused by the spatial distribution of temperature and opacities of gas and aerosols; the large variation is caused by the NH 3 cloud holes and thin-thick clouds. The methaneband light curves exhibit opposite-shape behavior compared with the UV and visible wavelengths, caused by wavelength-dependent brightness change of the GRS. Light-curve evolution is induced by periodic events in the belts and longitudinal drifting of the GRS and patchy clouds in the NTB. This study suggests several interesting mechanisms related to distributions of temperature, gas, hazes, and clouds for understanding the observed rotational modulations on brown dwarfs and exoplanets.

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Section: Size Of the Weather Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotational Light Curves of Jupiter from Ultraviolet to Mid-infrared and Implications for Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets

Zhang

Fletcher

et al. 2019

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“…is the mean angular velocity of the fluid, representing the average of the turntable rotation rate and the differential rotation rate ω. As shown by Niino and Misawa (1984) and Früh and Read (1999a), although the inviscid CSP criterion (i) or (more realistically) Arnol'd II criterion needs to be satisfied for the driven jet to be unstable, the observed stability boundary in a real, viscous fluid is also consistent with the existence of a critical Reynolds number Re c , defined with respect to a length scale of the same order as that of the E 1/4 Stewartson layer such that…”

Section: Circulation Regimes and Wavenumber Selectionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…A number of studies have appeared recently in which fully three-dimensional, time-dependent GCMs have been developed of Jupiter's or Saturn's weather layers which seek to capture the thermal and vorticity structures of the flow around and beneath the cloud tops (e.g. Liu and Schneider, 2010;Showman, 2008, 2010;Palotai et al, 2014;Young et al, 2019a, b;Spiga et al, 2020). These models have included the effects of solar heating in the stratosphere and upper troposphere and upwelling internal heating from the deep interior and have been capable of capturing a number of realistic features such as the equatorial prograde jets and multiple eddy-driven zonal jets at mid-latitudes.…”

Section: Pv Structures: Gcmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even weakly nonlinear theories (e.g. Pedlosky, 1970Pedlosky, , 1971Drazin, 1970) show that growing instabilities act to reduce the vigour of the instability and its growth rate by modifying the structure of the initial background flow to make it less strongly unstable. For barotropically or baroclinically unstable flows, this commonly entails a combination of reducing the strength of any gradients of PV or buoyancy in the base state via a pattern of eddy fluxes, but the structure of the end state may depend on a variety of factors and constraints, including the strength and distribution of any forcing.…”

Section: Equilibration and Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities in planetary atmospheres: energetics, equilibration and adjustment

Read

Kennedy

Lewis

et al. 2020

Nonlin. Processes Geophys.

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Abstract. Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities are well known as the mechanisms responsible for the production of the dominant energy-containing eddies in the atmospheres of Earth and several other planets, as well as Earth's oceans. Here we consider insights provided by both linear and nonlinear instability theories into the conditions under which such instabilities may occur, with reference to forced and dissipative flows obtainable in the laboratory, in simplified numerical atmospheric circulation models and in the planets of our solar system. The equilibration of such instabilities is also of great importance in understanding the structure and energetics of the observable circulation of atmospheres and oceans. Various ideas have been proposed concerning the ways in which baroclinic and barotropic instabilities grow to a large amplitude and saturate whilst also modifying their background flow and environment. This remains an area that continues to challenge theoreticians and observers, though some progress has been made. The notion that such instabilities may act under some conditions to adjust the background flow towards a critical state is explored here in the context of both laboratory systems and planetary atmospheres. Evidence for such adjustment processes is found relating to baroclinic instabilities under a range of conditions where the efficiency of eddy and zonal-mean heat transport may mutually compensate in maintaining a nearly invariant thermal structure in the zonal mean. In other systems, barotropic instabilities may efficiently mix potential vorticity to result in a flow configuration that is found to approach a marginally unstable state with respect to Arnol'd's second stability theorem. We discuss the implications of these findings and identify some outstanding open questions.

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“…A number of studies have appeared recently in which fully three-dimensional, time-dependent GCMs have been developed of 635 Jupiter's or Saturn's weather layers which seek to capture the thermal and vorticity structures of the flow around and beneath the cloud tops (e.g. Liu and Schneider, 2010;Showman, 2008, 2010;Palotai et al, 2014;Young et al, 2019a, b;Spiga et al, 2020). These models have included the effects of solar heating in the stratosphere and upper troposphere and upwelling Figure 16 shows a cross-section of ∂Q/∂y and u from a GCM simulation of Jupiter's weather layer by Young et al (2019a) (their run B, with a horizontal resolution of 512 × 256 points in longitude and latitude).…”

Section: Pv Structures: Gcmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities in planetary atmospheres - energetics, equilibration and adjustment

Read¹,

Lewis²,

Kennedy³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities, are well known as the mechanisms responsible for the production of the dominant energy-containing eddies in the atmospheres of the Earth and several other planets, as well as the Earth's oceans. Here we consider insights provided by both linear and nonlinear instability theories into the conditions under which such instabilities may occur, with reference to forced and dissipative flows obtainable in the laboratory, in simplified numerical atmospheric circulation models and in the planets of our Solar System. The equilibration of such instabilities is also of great importance in understanding the structure and energetics of the observable circulation of atmospheres and oceans. Various ideas have been proposed concerning the ways in which baroclinic and barotropic instabilities grow to large amplitude and saturate, whilst also modifying their background flow and environment. This remains an area that continues to challenge theoreticians and observers, though some progress has been made. The notion that such instabilities may act under some conditions to adjust the background flow towards a critical state is explored here in the context of both laboratory systems and planetary atmospheres. Evidence for such adjustment processes is found relating to baroclinic instabilities under a range of conditions where the efficiency of eddy and zonal mean heat transport may mutually compensate to maintain a nearly invariant thermal structure in the zonal mean. In other systems, barotropic instabilities may efficiently mix potential vorticity to result in a flow configuration that is found to approach a marginally unstable state with respect to Arnol'd's second stability theorem. We discuss the implications of these findings and identify some outstanding open questions.

show abstract

3D Modeling of interactions between Jupiter’s ammonia clouds and large anticyclones

Cited by 27 publications

References 50 publications

Rotational Light Curves of Jupiter from Ultraviolet to Mid-infrared and Implications for Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets

Rotational Light Curves of Jupiter from Ultraviolet to Mid-infrared and Implications for Brown Dwarfs and Exoplanets

Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities in planetary atmospheres: energetics, equilibration and adjustment

Baroclinic and barotropic instabilities in planetary atmospheres - energetics, equilibration and adjustment

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