Nonlinear simulations of Jupiter's 5-micron hot spots
Showman, A.P.; Dowling, T.E.
Science 289(5485): 1737-1740
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 10976064 Document Number: 518475
Large-scale nonlinear simulations of Jupiter's 5-micron hot spots produce long-lived coherent structures that cause subsidence in local regions, explaining the low cloudiness and the dryness measured by the Galileo probe inside a hot spot. Like observed hot spots, the simulated coherent structures are equatorially confined, have periodic spacing, propagate west relative to the flow, are generally confined to one hemisphere, and have an anticyclonic gyre on their equatorward side. The southern edge of the simulated hot spots develops vertical shear of up to 70 meters per second in the eastward wind, which can explain the results of the Galileo probe Doppler wind experiment. Copyright 2000 by the AAAS.