Prof. Peter Read

Abstract:

We test the feasibility of two scenarios that may drive the broad, prograde, equatorial jets in the Jovian atmosphere within the shallow "weather layer". The first idea attempts to explain the flat-headed jet as a consequence of a hydrodynamic instability along an equatorially trapped primarily jet. The strong primary jet is induced by a 300 in s(-1) Kelvin wave. The second idea is a bridging of a pair of off-equatorial jets due to horizontal eddy diffusion (the so-called Gierasch mechanism). The primary jets can be induced by a Hadley circulation, and might then be interconnected by subsequent hydrodynamic instabilities between them. We test the two scenarios using a general circulation model, but have so far been unable to obtain an equatorial jet that resembles observations. It appears, therefore, that the previously proposed model of combining Kelvin and Hadley forcing, is more plausible under the shallow hypothesis. (c) 2006 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.