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Now, Ingersoll says, "we think we've found. 13 press briefing found a clue to the energy in Jupiter's weather - thunderstorms. Meanwhile, the survey reported at the project's Aug. He adds that Galileo's Jupiter surveys should supply crucial data to test such computer simulations. In an accompanying commentary, Peter Gierasch of Cornell University observed that, if verified, the experiments have the "striking" implication that fluid dynamics alone "control the gross structure and the visual appearance" of the giant outer planet's weather.
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As the simulations ran, Jupiter-like atmospheric bands and jet stream winds appeared spontaneously. For basic data, they used only the observed values of Jupiter's radius, rotation rate, average wind velocity, and average thickness of its weather-generating fluid layers. They modeled the planet as a smooth sphere overlain by a shallow layers of turbulent fluid. In these experiments, James Cho and Lorenzo Polvani ignored heating. This is quite different from terrestrial weather where solar energy is all important.Ĭomputer simulations at Columbia University reported in Science magazine in July, however, raise a caveat. This reinforces the notion that a temperature difference between the planet's core and surface maintained by interior heat drives Jovian weather. Olson explains, "since we've reversed gravity, we've also reversed the temperature gradient." They chilled the sphere's core and heated its exterior.Īs the sphere spun, a banded weather pattern similar to that on Jupiter appeared in this upside-down experiment. They spun the sphere fast enough for the outward directed centrifugal force to simulate the strength of Jupiter's inward directed gravity. They filled a plastic model of Jupiter with colored water. Peter Olson at Johns Hopkins University and Jean-Baptiste Manneville, a recent Hopkins visiting scientist, put that suggestion to a laboratory test. That implies that heating from below is important.
Digital atmosphere pattern full#
The Galileo project's probe that plunged into Jupiter last December found the planet's raging winds blowing at full intensity deep beneath the visible surface. It radiates 70 percent more energy than it receives from the sun. Jupiter is cooling down from its formation 4.5 billion years ago.
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The relative importance of solar heating versus internal heating is a fundamental issue. Meteorologists need to know what supplies the system's energy, how that energy flows through the weather machine, and what determines the spectacular displays. Ingersoll notes that meteorologists stare at this Jovian weather and "would like to know what's going on." But poorly understood features like the Great Red Spot, which persists for centuries, stare back, mocking their ignorance. Alternating bands of jet-stream winds blow at speeds averaging around 250 miles an hour. Thanks to the Galileo spacecraft's scrutiny of Jupiter and recent laboratory experiments, those mysteries have begun to yield their secrets.Īndrew Ingersoll of the California Institute of Technology - lead Galileo meteorologist - explains that, in essence, Jupiter is a just a big ball of hydrogen and helium with decades-old storms. Its mysteries test their basic understanding of how planetary weather systems work. For Earth's meteorologists, weather on Jupiter is more than a curiosity.