The Deep Wind Structure of the Giant Planets: Results From an Anelastic Convection Model

Details The Deep Wind Structure of the Giant Planets: Results From an Anelastic Convection Model The Deep Wind Structure of the Giant Planets: Results From an Anelastic Convection Model

Oct 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007dps....39.1905k&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #19.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.444

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The giant gas planets have hot convective interiors. Therefore it has been assumed that the deep atmospheres are close to a barotropic state which may support the formation of interior Taylor columns. Most previous convection models of giant planets have used the Boussinesq approximation, which assumes the density is constant in depth; however, Jupiter's actual density varies by four orders of magnitude from the atmosphere to the interior. We therefore developed a new general circulation model (based on the MITgcm) that is anelastic and thereby incorporates this density variation. The model's geometry is a full 3D sphere down to a small inner core. It is non-hydrostatic, uses an equation of state suitable for hydrogen-helium mixtures (SCVH), and is driven by internal heat and solar forcing.
We show that the density gradients caused by convection drive the system away from an isentropic and therefore barotropic state, leading to significant baroclinic shear. The mean state is geostrophic and hydrostatic including the typically neglected, but significant, vertical Coriolis term. This leads to modification of the standard thermal wind relation for a deep compressible atmosphere. From mixing length approximations and the simulation results, we find that the geostrophically balanced baroclinic shear gives zonal flows which are closer to a state having the total momentum, rather than the velocity itself (as implied by the Taylor-Proudman theorem), constant along the direction of the rotation axis. The interior flow organizes in large positive vorticity columnar eddies parallel to the rotation axis supporting superrotating flows around the equator. The deep zonal velocity structure and the shear depend greatly on latitude. We discuss the differences between anelastic and Boussinesq models and the applicability of our results to the giant planets.

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