Baroclinic Instability on Hot Gas Giant Planets

Details Baroclinic Instability on Hot Gas Giant Planets Baroclinic Instability on Hot Gas Giant Planets

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf..319p&link_type=abstract

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.319

Physics

Scientific paper

We investigate baroclinic instability under conditions applicable to hot extrasolar giant planets. Using a global general circulation model (GCM) which solves the primitive equations, we show that large-scale jets similar to those observed in current GCM simulations of hot gas giant planets are baroclinically unstable at a wide range of latitudes. For jets located at latitudes away from the equator, the growth rate and the most unstable mode are in good agreement with linear analysis. For jets located at or near the equator, the instability is strong at the jet flanks, rather than at the core. Thus, baroclinic instability is significant for understanding characteristics of hot gas giant planet atmospheres. We also demonstrate that the instability is not captured in simulations with low resolution and/or high artificial viscosity.

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