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Science 22 September 1989:
Vol. 245. no. 4924, pp. 1367 - 1369
DOI: 10.1126/science.245.4924.1367
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Articles

Neptune's Wind Speeds Obtained by Tracking Clouds in Voyager Images

H. B. Hammel 1, R. F. Beebe 2, E. M. De Jong 3, C. J. Hansen 1, C. D. Howell 3, A. P. Ingersoll 3, T. V. Johnson 1, S. S. Limaye 4, J. A. Magalhaes , J. B. Pollack 5, L. A. Sromovsky 4, V. E. Suomi 4, and C. E. Swift 3

1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109
2 New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003
3 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
4 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706
5 NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035

Images of Neptune obtained by the narrow-angle camera of the Voyager 2 spacecraft reveal large-scale cloud features that persist for several months or longer. The features' periods of rotation about the planetary axis range from 15.8 to 18.4 hours. The atmosphere equatorward of -53° rotates with periods longer than the 16.05-hour period deduced from Voyager's planetary radio astronomy experiment (presumably the planet's internal rotation period). The wind speeds computed with respect to this radio period range from 20 meters per second eastward to 325 meters per second westward. Thus, the cloud-top wind speeds are roughly the same for all the planets ranging from Venus to Neptune, even though the solar energy inputs to the atmospheres vary by a factor of 1000.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Neptune's Cloud Structure in 1994.
H. B. Hammel, G. W. Lockwood, J. R. Mills, and C. D. Barnet (1995)
Science 268, 1740-1742
   Abstract »    PDF »
Latitudinal and Longitudinal Oscillations of Cloud Features on Neptune.
L. A. SROMOVSKY (1991)
Science 254, 684-686
   Abstract »    PDF »
High Winds of Neptune: A Possible Mechanism.
V. E. SUOMI, S. S. LIMAYE, and D. R. JOHNSON (1991)
Science 251, 929-932
   Abstract »    PDF »
Atmospheric Dynamics of the Outer Planets.
A. P. Ingersoll and A. P. Ingersoll (1990)
Science 248, 308-315
   Abstract »    PDF »
The Voyager 2 Encounter with the Neptunian System.
E. C. Stone, E. C. Stone, and E. D. Miner (1989)
Science 246, 1417-1421
   Abstract »    PDF »
Voyager 2 at Neptune: Imaging Science Results.
B. A. Smith, B. A. Smith, L. A. Soderblom, D. Banfield, c. Barnet, A. T. Basilevsky, R. F. Beebe, K. Bollinger, J. M. Boyce, A. Brahic, et al. (1989)
Science 246, 1422-1449
   Abstract »    PDF »
Infrared Observations of the Neptunian System.
B. Conrath, F. M. Flasar, R. Hanel, V. Kunde, W. Maguire, J. Pearl, J. Pirraglia, R. Samuelson, P. Gierasch, A. Weir, et al. (1989)
Science 246, 1454-1459
   Abstract »    PDF »


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