Convective Models for Jupiter's Wind Bands: Transition From Deep To Shallow Envelopes

Details Convective Models for Jupiter's Wind Bands: Transition From Deep To Shallow Envelopes Convective Models for Jupiter's Wind Bands: Transition From Deep To Shallow Envelopes

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.4104m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #41.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.470

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

In a recent paper (JGR-Planets, in press), we have discussed a low-resolution numerical simulation of the uppermost 0.6 % of Jupiter's envelope, employing a realistic value for the outgoing energy flux, and very low kinematic viscosity. The thin spherical shell is mostly convective, but includes a shallow atmosphere at the top. The model produces a dominating super-rotating jet at the equator, and an alternating wind pattern at higher latitudes. The equatorial jet has a speed within a factor of 2 of the observed values. Even though the agreements with observations are so far qualitative, it is promising that deeper, higher resolution simulations, with realistic physical inputs, can eventually produce the correct numbers. An intriguing process illustrated by this model is that the Coriolis force, generated by the mean vertical velocity, plays a decisive role in balancing the convergence of the zonal-latitudinal Reynolds stress at the equator, and thus is required for generating the positive equatorial jet, at least in this thin-shell simulation. Does this still hold when the shell gets thicker? This is the question we are trying to address, using a series of idealistic models with different depths. The `idealistic’ models use a flux that is many orders of magnitudes larger than the realistic value, so that relaxation and spin-up can be obtained in an acceptable length of time. The numerical experiments show that the Coriolis force associated with the mean vertical velocity remains crucial for the super-rotating equatorial jet, even when the shell thickness reaches 20% of the planetary radius. The vertical shear of the zonal wind at the equator increases as the depth of the model gets thicker, but the vertically averaged wind stays positive.

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