Nonlinear Simulations of Jupiter's 5-Micron Hot Spots
Adam P. Showman,1*
Timothy E. Dowling2*
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.
1 National Research Council (NRC)/NASA Ames
Research Center, Mail Stop 245-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000, USA.
2 Comparative Planetology Laboratory, University of
Louisville, 211 Sackett Hall, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
*
E-mail: showman{at}humbabe.arc.nasa.gov (A.P.S.);
dowling{at}flolab.spd.louisville.edu (T.E.D.)
