Monitoring Jupiter's Atmosphere for Tidal Oscillations

Details Monitoring Jupiter's Atmosphere for Tidal Oscillations Monitoring Jupiter's Atmosphere for Tidal Oscillations

Dec 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003agufm.p12a1049h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2003, abstract #P12A-1049

Physics

5707 Atmospheres: Structure And Dynamics, 5770 Tidal Forces

Scientific paper

Tidal dissipation in Jupiter is the ultimate source of the energy that powers Io's volcanism and may also be an important cause of heating in Europa and Ganymede. However, the mechanism of jovian tidal dissipation is still unknown. In general, there are two possibilities that can work in a fluid planet: 1) some viscous process in the interior of the planet (although eddy viscosity due to convective overturning can be excluded because of the large mismatch between the tidal period and the convective eddy timescale); or 2) the generation of inertia-gravity waves (a natural consequence of tidal forcing in any stably stratified fluid) that propagate to the upper atmosphere before breaking. Our calculations rule out the possibility that a stable, resonant, ducting layer in the atmosphere or outer envelope of Jupiter would result in large wave amplitudes and dissipate enough energy to account for a longterm average tidal dissipation factor (Q) of 105. But, we cannot exclude the possibility that a stable layer (perhaps due to composition gradients) in the deep interior would have this effect. The resulting energy flux ( ˜ 1021 erg/s) would be an important factor in the thermospheric heat balance. Thus, by monitoring Jupiter's atmosphere to determine the amplitude of the tidal wave response, JIMO would contribute to the understanding of the longterm orbital and thermal evolution of the Galilean satellites, while also shedding light on Jupiter's interior structure and upper atmospheric heat balance. Even a negative result would be valuable. Although global jovian atmospheric oscillations have been difficult to observe, the fact that we know the tidal frequencies and wavenumbers exactly will make it possible to add even random or opportunistic observations in phase to enhance the desired signal. We estimate that the waves will have a temperature amplitude less than 1 K, but a horizontal wind amplitude of up to 10 m/s at the 100 mbar level of the atmosphere.

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