Thermal and gravitational signals produced by zonal winds on Jupiter

Details Thermal and gravitational signals produced by zonal winds on Jupiter Thermal and gravitational signals produced by zonal winds on Jupiter

Dec 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufm.p13a1636l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #P13A-1636

Physics

[0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres, [5704] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Atmospheres, [5724] Planetary Sciences: Fluid Planets / Interiors, [6220] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Jupiter

Scientific paper

Measurements by Galileo probe and model calculations indicate Jupiter's interior is convecting. Jupiter's rapid rotation and the weak viscous stresses imply that motion perpendicular to the rotation axis is inhibited, so convective motions occur primarily along cylinders parallel to the planet's spin axis. Along the spin axis, they are expected to homogenize entropy, to adjust the interior to a convectively nearly neutral state. This thermal structure implies strong constraints on the zonal wind by thermal wind balance, with the observed upper-atmospheric winds providing a second constraint. Here we examine the temperature and gravitational signals implied by these constraints. Our results predict that the equator-to-pole temperature gradient increases with depth and reaches ˜2 K at 100 bar if the flow is weak in the region with significant Ohmic dissipation produced by interaction with the planetary magnetic field. We calculate the gravitational signals associated with the constrained wind and temperature structure and conclude that it will be detectable by NASA's upcoming Juno mission to Jupiter.

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