Simulations of the Diabatic Circulations of Neptune and Uranus

Details Simulations of the Diabatic Circulations of Neptune and Uranus Simulations of the Diabatic Circulations of Neptune and Uranus

Jun 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.0510d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #05.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1078

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Voyager IRIS retrievals of temperature and para-hydrogen fraction for Neptune and Uranus in the range 100-1000 mbar are used to estimate the diabatic heating and hence the vertical velocity, dot theta , in isentropic coordinates, where theta is the potential temperature. The continuity equation, assuming steady motion, then yields the meridional circulation, v. The thermal wind equation yields the zonal wind, u. Both planets show monotonically increasing potential vorticity with latitude, thereby satisfying the Charney-Stern stability criterion. In contrast, Jupiter appears to violate the Charney-Stern criterion but be marginally stable with respect to Arnol'd's 2nd stability criterion, with the Great Red Spot and other vortices arising from fluctuations about this marginally stable state. The suggestion is that Neptune's vortices arise by means other than upper-tropospheric shear instability. Geostrophic balance of the deduced meridional circulation implies a net zonal force G = -fv, where f is the Coriolis parameter; this force must arise from irreversible processes. Planetary-wave breaking, although important in Earth's stratosphere, can be tentatively ruled out for Neptune and Uranus based on the data. We demonstrate using the EPIC general circulation model, with para hydrogen initially set to equilibrium values, that a Rayleigh-drag form for the zonal force, G = -u/tau , leads over time to the correct sign of the meridional circulation and disequilibrium of para hydrogen. Gravity-wave breaking is one possible explanation for this form of G.

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