Research led by Lia Siegelman at Scripps Institution of Oceanography reveals that moist convection drives cyclones on Jupiter, paralleling ocean vortices. Utilizing high-resolution infrared images from the Juno spacecraft, the study demonstrates that energy from small-scale convective processes transfers upscale to large cyclones, with diameters around 5,000 km. This energy transfer mechanism, consistent with Rayleigh–Bénard convection, enhances heat transfer from Jupiter's interior to its troposphere and may offer insights into Earth's atmospheric dynamics.
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Lia Siegelman, a physical oceanographer and postdoctoral scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, decided to pursue the research after noticing that the cyclones at Jupiter's pole seem to share similarities with ocean vortices she studied during her time as a Ph.D. student. Using an array of these images and principles used in geophysical fluid dynamics, Siegelman and colleagues provided evidence for a longtime hypothesis that moist convection—when hotter, less dense air rises—drives these cyclones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh–Bénard_convectionAbstract
Jupiter’s atmosphere is one of the most turbulent places in the solar system. Whereas observations of lightning and thunderstorms point to moist convection as a small-scale energy source for Jupiter’s large-scale vortices and zonal jets, this has never been demonstrated due to the coarse resolution of pre-Juno measurements. The Juno spacecraft discovered that Jovian high latitudes host a cluster of large cyclones with diameter of around 5,000 km, each associated with intermediate- (roughly between 500 and 1,600 km) and smaller-scale vortices and filaments of around 100 km. Here, we analyse infrared images from Juno with a high resolution of 10 km. We unveil a dynamical regime associated with a significant energy source of convective origin that peaks at 100 km scales and in which energy gets subsequently transferred upscale to the large circumpolar and polar cyclones. Although this energy route has never been observed on another planet, it is surprisingly consistent with idealized studies of rapidly rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection, lending theoretical support to our analyses. This energy route is expected to enhance the heat transfer from Jupiter’s hot interior to its troposphere and may also be relevant to the Earth’s atmosphere, helping us better understand the dynamics of our own planet.