Nonlinear Simulations of Saturn's Long-Lived Anticyclones

Details Nonlinear Simulations of Saturn's Long-Lived Anticyclones Nonlinear Simulations of Saturn's Long-Lived Anticyclones

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.1119g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #11.19; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.498

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

New measurements of the dynamical properties of the long-lived Saturn's anticyclonic vortex known as "Brown Spot” (BS), discovered during the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys in 1980-81 at latitude 43ºN, and model simulations using the EPIC code (Dowling, T.E., et al., 1998, Icarus 132, 221-238), have allowed us to constrain the vertical wind shear in Saturn's troposphere (up to 10 bars) at this latitude. BS dynamical parameters from Voyager images include its size ( 6100 km East-West by 4350 km North-South), tangential velocity at periphery ( 55 ms-1) and vorticity (3.6x10-5 s-1), lifetime > 1 year, drift velocity ( 5 ms-1), mean meridional atmospheric wind profile at its latitude and interactions with nearby vortices (pair orbiting and merging). The numerical experiments are performed to try to reproduce this single vortex properties and mergers by varying the vertical structure of the zonal wind shear adjusting the static stability of the lower stratosphere and upper troposphere. Our simulations indicate that BS's drift velocity, longevity and merging behaviour are very sensitive parameters to the vertical wind shear. The best results suggest that winds must slightly decay below the visible cloud deck at 0.5 bar at a rate ∂u/∂z 2-6 ms-1 per scale height at the BS latitude, or remain constant. Changing the vortex latitude within the band domain introduces latitude oscillations in the vortex but not a significant meridional migration. Simulated mergers always showed orbiting movements with a typical merging time of about three days, very close to the time-span observed in the interaction of real vortices.

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