Emergence of Jupiter’s vortices and jets from random initial conditions

Condensed Matter, abstract
cond-mat/0305206

From: Freddy Bouchet <bouchet@dma.unifi.it>

Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 11:01:35 GMT   (575kb)

Authors:
Freddy Bouchet,
Thierry Dumont

Comments: 34 pages, 14 figures

Subj-class: Statistical Mechanics

We explain the emergence and stability of the most important jets and
vortices, in the highly turbulent Jupiter’s atmosphere, by a statistical
mechanics of the potential vorticity mixing. Using the Quasi-Geostrophic 1-1/2
layer, with topography, when the Rossby deformation radius is small, we predict
strong jets. These jets can be either zonal, or closed into a ring structure
like the Great Red Spot one. We reproduce the GRS observed velocity field to a
very good quantitative accuracy. For smaller vortices, or for stronger
topography curvature, we reproduce the characteristics properties of the White
Ovals or of the cyclonic Brown Barges. The link between their shape, topography
and surrounding shear is explicitly described. We obtain very strong
qualitative results for the Jupiter’s vortices. For instance, any of these
vortices must be on topography extrema (in the reference frame moving with the
structure), the shear in the active layer is larger than the shear in the deep
layer. On a same latitudinal band, the velocity of the vortex is related to
their latitude. These theoretical predictions are in accordance with the
observed properties of Jovian vortices.