Related papers: Zonal Jets as Transport Barriers in Planetary Atmo…
Intense east-west winds called zonal jets are observed in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn and extend in their deep interior. We present experimental results from a fully three-dimensional laboratory analog of deep gas giants zonal…
The Lagrangian dynamics of zonal jets in the atmosphere are considered, with particular attention paid to explaining why, under commonly encountered conditions, zonal jets serve as barriers to meridional transport. The velocity field is…
The mean zonal flow observed on Jupiter consists of an intricate pattern of jets, or bands of zonal flow moving prograde or retrograde compared to the bulk planetary rotation. The strongest flow is a superrotating (prograde) jet near the…
Results from the laboratory experiments on the evolution of baroclinically unstable flows generated in a rotating tank with topographic beta-effect are presented. We study zonal jets of alternating direction which occur in these flows. The…
A remarkable phenomenon in turbulent flows is the spontaneous emergence of coherent large spatial scale zonal jets. Geophysical examples of this phenomenon include the Jovian banded winds and the Earth's polar front jet. In this work a…
The dynamics, structure and stability of zonal jets in planetary flows are still poorly understood, especially in terms of coupling with the small-scale turbulent flow. Here, we use an experimental approach to address the questions of zonal…
We study rapidly-rotating Boussinesq convection driven by internal heating in a full sphere. We use a numerical model based on the quasi-geostrophic approximation for the velocity field, whereas the temperature field is three-dimensional.…
We explore the conditions required for isolated vortices to exist in sheared zonal flows and the stability of the underlying zonal winds. This is done using the standard 2-layer quasigeostrophic model with the lower layer depth becoming…
Observations of brown dwarfs and relatively isolated young extrasolar giant planets have provided unprecedented details to probe atmospheric dynamics in a new regime. Questions about mechanisms governing global circulation remain to be…
The atmospheric circulation of tidally locked planets is dominated by a superrotating eastward equatorial jet. We develop a predictive theory for the formation of this jet, proposing a mechanism in which the three-dimensional stationary…
The zonal flow in Jupiter's upper troposphere is organized into alternating retrograde and prograde jets, with a prograde (superrotating) jet at the equator. Existing models posit as the driver of the flow either differential radiative…
The meridional temperature profile of the upper layers of planetary atmospheres is set through a balance between differential radiative heating by a nearby star, or by intrinsic heat fluxes emanating from the deep interior, and the…
Giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn feature strong zonal wind patterns on their surfaces. Although several different mechanisms that may drive these jets have been proposed over the last decades, the origin of the zonal winds is still…
We review progress that has been made to constructa theory for the jet formation and maintenance in planetary atmospheres. The theory is built in the regime where velocityfluctuations around the base jet are very small compared to the…
Ultra-hot Jupiters, an extreme class of planets not found in our solar system, provide a unique window into atmospheric processes. The extreme temperature contrasts between their day- and night-sides pose a fundamental climate puzzle: how…
Analyses of both altimetric data and in-situ measurements reveal patterns of meridionally-alternating, nearly zonal, coherent jet-like structures in many of the world ocean basins. In this context, recent Ocean General Circulation Model…
The surface winds of Jupiter and Saturn are primarily zonal. Each planet exhibits strong prograde equatorial flow flanked by multiple alternating zonal winds at higher latitudes. The depth to which these flows penetrate has long been…
We use a linear shallow-water model to investigate the global circulation of the atmospheres of tidally locked planets. Simulations, observations, and simple models show that if these planets are sufficiently rapidly rotating, their…
Zonal jets are striking and beautiful examples of the propensity for geophysical turbulent flows to spontaneously self-organize into robust, large scale coherent structures. There exist many dynamical mechanisms for the formation of zonal…
The Cassini and Juno probes have revealed large coherent cyclonic vortices in the polar regions of Saturn and Jupiter, a dramatic contrast from the east-west banded jet structure seen at lower latitudes. Debate has centered on whether the…