Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..dfd.dj012s&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dymanics 55th Annual Meeting, abstract #DJ.012
Physics
Scientific paper
Previous simulations of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) have failed to reproduce its most prominent feature: its hollowness. Unlike most laboratory 2D vortices, where vorticity is peaked at the center, the GRS has nearly no fluid motion in its interior. The coherent fluid motion is confined to a narrow ring at the outer edge of the GRS that moves counter-clockwise around the vortex. Simulations show that isolated 2D vortices that are as hollow as the GRS are violently unstable, turning themselves inside-out within a few rotations of the vortex. How than can one explain the long-lived, stable GRS? The answer is that the GRS is not isolated but instead embedded in a system of east-west jet streams. The eastward jet streams correspond to strong (potential) vorticity gradients which act as guides for Rossby waves. We show that the interaction between the GRS and the Rossby waves stabilize the GRS. Furthermore, we show that the hollowness of the GRS is near its critical limit, so that if it were any more hollow it would become unstable. We suggest a plausible mechanism through which this critical hollowness is maintained.
Asay-Davis Xylar
Marcus Philip
Shetty Sushil
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