Jupiter's Great Red Spot: compactness condition and stability
Linear Rossby wave dispersion relationships suggest that Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is a baroclinic structure embedded in a barotropic shearing zonal flow. Quasi-geostrophic (QG) two-layer simulations support the theory, as long as an infinitely deep zonal flow is assumed. However, once...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
1994-01-01
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| Series: | Annales Geophysicae |
| Online Access: | https://www.ann-geophys.net/12/1/1994/angeo-12-1-1994.pdf |
| Summary: | Linear Rossby wave dispersion relationships
suggest that Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is a baroclinic structure embedded
in a barotropic shearing zonal flow. Quasi-geostrophic (QG) two-layer
simulations support the theory, as long as an infinitely deep zonal flow is
assumed. However, once a finite depth of the lower layer is assumed, a
self-interaction of the baroclinic eddy component produces a barotropic
radiating field, so that the GRS-like eddy can no longer remain compact.
Compactness is recovered by explicitly introducing a deep dynamics of the
interior for the lower layer, instead of the <i>shallow</i> QG formulation. An
implication of the result is a strong coupling of the GRS to a convectively
active interior. |
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| ISSN: | 0992-7689 1432-0576 |