Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter

Journal
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Ingersoll, Andrew P.
•
Ewald, Shawn P.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Li, Cheng
•
Siegelman, Lia
•
Klein, Patrice
•
Young, William R.
DOI
Abstract
Since 2017 the Juno spacecraft has observed a cyclone at the north pole of Jupiter surrounded by eight smaller cyclones arranged in a polygonal pattern. It is not clear why this configuration is so stable or how it is maintained. Here we use a time series of images obtained by the JIRAM mapping spectrometer on Juno to track the winds and measure the vorticity and horizontal divergence within and around the polar cyclone and two of the circumpolar ones. We find an anticyclonic ring between the polar cyclone and the surrounding cyclones, supporting the theory that such shielding is needed for the stability of the polygonal pattern. However, even at the smallest spatial scale (180 km) we do not find the expected signature of convection—a spatial correlation between divergence and anticyclonic vorticity—in contrast with a previous study using additional assumptions about the dynamics, which shows the correlation at scales from 20 to 200 km. We suggest that a smaller size, relative to atmospheric thickness, of Jupiter’s convective storms compared with Earth’s, can reconcile the two studies.
Volume
6
Issue
11
Start page
1280
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
2397-3366
Ads BibCode
2022NatAs...6.1280I
Rights
open.access
File(s)
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name

Ingersoll_NatAstron_2022.pdf

Description
preprint
Size

5.93 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

abdf78601e48102ec00585fe08609e68

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name

s41550-022-01774-0.pdf

Description
[Administrators only]
Size

2.13 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

9eb09d1b8231627b7a439a5452136747