The Suppression of the Rhines Effect and the Location of Vortices on Saturn

Details The Suppression of the Rhines Effect and the Location of Vortices on Saturn The Suppression of the Rhines Effect and the Location of Vortices on Saturn

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.p11c1284p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #P11C-1284

Other

1060 Planetary Geochemistry (5405, 5410, 5704, 5709, 6005, 6008), 5704 Atmospheres (0343, 1060)

Scientific paper

Saturn, like other gas giant planets, has an atmosphere containing numerous vortices which tend to favor formation at latitudes where the zonal jet profile is barotropiclly unstable. Vortices which do form are often destroyed as they interact with Rossby waves in a process called the "Rhines effect" which acts to create alternating zonal flows. Interestingly, however, observations suggest that at some latitudes, vortices are more likely to persist, suggesting that at certain latitudes, Rossby waves may be prevented from interacting with vortices such that the Rhines effect is suppressed. Following the method applied to Jupiter as outlined by Theiss (2006), the two-dimensional Rhines scale is generalized to include depth dependent flow with a finite deformation radius in an effort to compare locations of known vortices with latitudes where the Rhines effect may be suppressed on Saturn. Several data sets of Saturn's zonal flow, including a recent profile as observed by Vasavada et al. (2006), are analyzed to determine at which latitudes the Rhines effect may be suppressed. These critical latitudes are then compared with locations where vortices are known to exist. A good correlation is found between the location of vortices and where the Rhines effect is shown to be suppressed on Saturn, suggesting that the criterion established by Theiss (2006) is not restricted to Jupiter.

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