Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter
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 spec...
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ftcaltechauth:oai:authors.library.caltech.edu:119295 2023-05-15T17:39:53+02:00 Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter Ingersoll, Andrew P. Ewald, Shawn P. Tosi, Federico Adriani, Alberto Mura, Alessandro Grassi, Davide Plainaki, Christina Sindoni, Giuseppe Li, Cheng Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Young, William R. 2022-11 https://authors.library.caltech.edu/119295/ https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-694122000.1 unknown Nature Publishing Group Ingersoll, Andrew P. and Ewald, Shawn P. and Tosi, Federico and Adriani, Alberto and Mura, Alessandro and Grassi, Davide and Plainaki, Christina and Sindoni, Giuseppe and Li, Cheng and Siegelman, Lia and Klein, Patrice and Young, William R. (2022) Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter. Nature Astronomy, 6 (11). pp. 1280-1286. ISSN 2397-3366. doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01774-0. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-694122000.1 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-694122000.1> Article PeerReviewed 2022 ftcaltechauth https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01774-0 2023-02-16T19:02:05Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Pole Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) Jupiter ENVELOPE(101.133,101.133,-66.117,-66.117) North Pole Nature Astronomy 6 11 1280 1286 |
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Caltech Authors (California Institute of Technology) |
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unknown |
description |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ingersoll, Andrew P. Ewald, Shawn P. Tosi, Federico Adriani, Alberto Mura, Alessandro Grassi, Davide Plainaki, Christina Sindoni, Giuseppe Li, Cheng Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Young, William R. |
spellingShingle |
Ingersoll, Andrew P. Ewald, Shawn P. Tosi, Federico Adriani, Alberto Mura, Alessandro Grassi, Davide Plainaki, Christina Sindoni, Giuseppe Li, Cheng Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Young, William R. Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter |
author_facet |
Ingersoll, Andrew P. Ewald, Shawn P. Tosi, Federico Adriani, Alberto Mura, Alessandro Grassi, Davide Plainaki, Christina Sindoni, Giuseppe Li, Cheng Siegelman, Lia Klein, Patrice Young, William R. |
author_sort |
Ingersoll, Andrew P. |
title |
Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter |
title_short |
Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter |
title_full |
Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter |
title_fullStr |
Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter |
title_sort |
vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of jupiter |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://authors.library.caltech.edu/119295/ https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-694122000.1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(101.133,101.133,-66.117,-66.117) |
geographic |
Jupiter North Pole |
geographic_facet |
Jupiter North Pole |
genre |
North Pole |
genre_facet |
North Pole |
op_relation |
Ingersoll, Andrew P. and Ewald, Shawn P. and Tosi, Federico and Adriani, Alberto and Mura, Alessandro and Grassi, Davide and Plainaki, Christina and Sindoni, Giuseppe and Li, Cheng and Siegelman, Lia and Klein, Patrice and Young, William R. (2022) Vorticity and divergence at scales down to 200 km within and around the polar cyclones of Jupiter. Nature Astronomy, 6 (11). pp. 1280-1286. ISSN 2397-3366. doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01774-0. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-694122000.1 <https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-694122000.1> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01774-0 |
container_title |
Nature Astronomy |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
1280 |
op_container_end_page |
1286 |
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1766140645614813184 |