Open AccessJupiter's Great Red Spot: compactness condition and stability
Author(s) -
Jun–Ichi Yano,
Glenn R. Flierl
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
annales geophysicae
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.522
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1432-0576
pISSN - 0992-7689
DOI - 10.1007/s00585-994-0001-z
Subject(s) - barotropic fluid , baroclinity , rossby wave , compact space , physics , geology , geophysics , zonal flow (plasma) , jupiter (rocket family) , mechanics , classical mechanics , atmospheric sciences , mathematical analysis , plasma , mathematics , astronomy , quantum mechanics , tokamak , space shuttle
Linear Rossby wave dispersion relationships\udsuggest that Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is a baroclinic structure embedded\udin a barotropic shearing zonal flow. Quasi-geostrophic (QG) two-layer\udsimulations support the theory, as long as an infinitely deep zonal flow is\udassumed. However, once a finite depth of the lower layer is assumed, a\udself-interaction of the baroclinic eddy component produces a barotropic\udradiating field, so that the GRS-like eddy can no longer remain compact.\udCompactness is recovered by explicitly introducing a deep dynamics of the\udinterior for the lower layer, instead of the shallow QG formulation. An\udimplication of the result is a strong coupling of the GRS to a convectively\udactive interior