Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p41c1296m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P41C-1296
Physics
3319 General Circulation (1223), 5210 Planetary Atmospheres, Clouds, And Hazes (0343), 5704 Atmospheres (0343, 1060), 5739 Meteorology (3346), 6220 Jupiter
Scientific paper
In the last decade, three of the larger anti-cyclonic spots in Jupiter's atmosphere, the White Ovals (WOS), merged into a single large oval rivaling in size (and recently in color) with the Great Red Spot (GRS). The observation and modeling of these events allowed us to gain some insight on the nature and dynamics of these features; yet, several important questions still remain unanswered. Is the evolution of the WOS representative of how the GRS came to be? To what extent, if any, is the dynamics of the spots in one latitudinal domain linked to the dynamics of spots in adjacent latitudinal domains? What is the role in the merger events of the cyclonic cells generally observed to be embedded between the anti-cyclones? Is the merger of the WOS a sign of a global weather cycle on Jupiter, like has been recently proposed? Similar mergers to those observed between the WOS have been reported to occur among the smaller white spots in the region immediately to the south, historically known as the South South Temperate Belt (SSTB). This region has one of the higher densities of spots per longitude in the planet, and a detailed study of its morphology and evolution should help us address the questions raised by the mergers of the WOS. We present an analysis of the morphology and dynamics of the vortices in this region based mostly on HST archived images, with support of some ground based images from the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers of Japan. Numerical simulations in which we explore the observed long-term evolution of the spots in the framework of vortex-streets are also presented. Finally, we try to reproduce the details observed in merger events between spots in this region. This work was supported by New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology new faculty start-up funds.
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