Flow patterns of Jupiter's south polar region

The Oscillatory Motion of Jupiter's Polar Cyclones Results From Vorticity Dynamics

“…Such cyclones can be generated by moist convection (O’Neill et al., 2015, 2016), where 2D inverse energy cascade in the turbulent polar regions brings the kinetic energy from the convective scale up to the horizontal scale of the cyclones (Moriconi et al., 2020; Siegelman et al., 2022). These regions are bounded by prograde jets at around latitudes 65°N∖S (Rogers et al., 2017, 2022), which may act as a separating barrier. In contrast with the Great Red Spot, which is centered around latitude 20°S and has a shallow depth (less than 500 km, Parisi et al.…”

“…Such cyclones can be generated by moist convection 9,10 , where 2D inverse energy cascade in the turbulent polar regions brings the kinetic energy from the convective scale up to the horizontal scale of the cyclones 11,12 . These regions are bounded by prograde jets at around latitudes 65 • N\S 13,14 , which may act as a separating barrier. In contrast with the Great Red Spot, which is centered around latitude 20 • S and has a shallow depth (less than 500 km 15 ) relative to the deep surrounding jets (∼ 3000 km 16 ), the polar cyclones, subject to the Taylor-Proudman theorem 17 with a vertical axis parallel to the planetary rotation axis and a smaller Rossby number, potentially extend deeper, suggesting a 2D dynamical regime.…”

“…Such cyclones can be generated by moist convection (O'Neill et al, 2015(O'Neill et al, , 2016, where 2D inverse energy cascade in the turbulent polar regions brings the kinetic energy from the convective scale up to the horizontal scale of the cyclones (Moriconi et al, 2020;. These regions are bounded by prograde jets at around latitudes 65°N∖S (Rogers et al, 2017(Rogers et al, , 2022, which may act as a separating barrier. In contrast with the Great Red Spot, which is centered around latitude 20°S and has a shallow depth (less than 500 km, Parisi et al ( 2021)) relative to the deep surrounding jets (∼3,000 km, Kaspi et al ( 2018)), the polar cyclones, subject to the Taylor-Proudman theorem (Vallis, 2017) with a vertical axis parallel to the planetary rotation axis and a smaller Rossby number, potentially extend deeper, suggesting a 2D dynamical regime.The beta-drift is a force that results from a dipole of vorticity (usually termed "beta-gyres," Sutyrin and Flierl (1994)) that is induced by an interaction between the tangential velocity of a cyclone and a gradient of potential vorticity (PV) that is present in the background of the cyclone (Chan, 2005;Gavriel & Kaspi, 2021;Rossby, 1948).…”

Investigating Thermal Contrasts Between Jupiter's Belts, Zones, and Polar Vortices With VLT/VISIR

“…This transition boundary to the polar region is seen in the JunoCam near-IR (Figures 19l and 20l) as a large CH 4 -bright region extending poleward of 50-60°N (with a ragged boundary in the north) and poleward of ∼64°S (more discrete boundary in the south). This polar boundary meanders with longitude (possibly modulated by the presence of a Rossby wave, L. Li et al (2004), Barrado-Izagirre et al (2008), Rogers et al (2022)) in JunoCam visible observations, which is not captured in the VLT/VISIR observations. However, despite the limited 889-nm view of the north polar aerosols from JunoCam (Figure 19l), there does not seem to be a strong correlation with the northern cold polar vortex boundary and the hazes.…”

“… (a–k) Southern equidistant polar projection of the Very Large Telescope/Very Large Telescope Imager and Spectrometer 24–27 May 2018 global maps, corrected for limb brightening/darkening. (l) JunoCam CH 4 ‐band (889 nm) and (m) visible RGB observations of Jupiter's north pole during the Perijove 13, processed by Gerald Eichstädt and John Rogers (Rogers et al., 2022). Longitude coordinates are displayed in System III W longitude.…”