Image of Jupiter (L) and Simulation of Jupiter's Deep Atmospheric Flow (R) (IMAGE)

University of Alberta

Image of Jupiter (L) and Simulation of Jupiter's Deep Atmospheric Flow (R)

Caption

On the left side is a NASA image of Jupiter taken from Hubble Space Telescope. On the ride side is results of a 3-D simulation of Jupiter's deep atmospheric flow. The image gives global views of the axial vorticity (curl of the fluid velocity) at the outer boundary, the interior boundary, and in a meridional cut. Blue spots are anticyclones, which are predominant on Jupiter and rotate in the direction opposite Earth's cyclonic storms. In the simulation, the anticyclones are ringed by cyclonic filaments, which have also been observed on Jupiter. The image also reveals the vorticity of the zonal shear, which is much weaker than that of vortices. The interior flow is seen in the meridional cut to be strongly shaped by global rotation.

Credit

Moritz Heimpel, University of Alberta

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