Jupiter's Cyclone Perfect Geometric Arrangement Stayed Stable For Years

A group of scientists may have found some explanation for the perfect geometric arrangement of Jupiter's cyclone. This pattern stayed stable for years, which led scientists to examine it.

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Geometric Patterns in Jupiter Cyclone

Andrew P. Ingersoll of the California Institute of Technology and his team found that an anticyclonic ring created the polygonal patterns in the cyclone, which was published in Nature Astronomy. The team assumed that the ring between the main cyclone and the smaller cyclones kept the clusters in their unique patterns.

In contrast to a previous study that used additional assumptions about the dynamics and found the correlation at scales from 20 to 200 km, the researchers did not find the expected signature of convection- a spatial correlation between divergence and anticyclonic vorticity-even at the smallest spatial scale (180 km). The researchers propose that the two results can be reconciled by assuming that Jupiter's convective storms are smaller than those on Earth in terms of air thickness.

Juno's Infrared Auroral Mapper

Juno is the first spacecraft that captured Jupiter's poles. Previous satellites orbited the planet's equatorial region. It provided views of the planet's famous Red Spot. It has two camera systems intended for visible light images and another for heat signatures using the JIRAM.

The scientists used JIRAM images to track the winds with the polar cyclone and two circumpolar ones. The scientists, however, did not find what they had expected based on previous assumptions about the dynamics of the expected convection signature- a spatial correlation between divergence and anticyclonic vorticity.

Cyclones in Jupiter

The Jupiter cyclone has a radius of approximately 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Its north pole has eight of these cyclones, and its south pole has five. These storms have existed since Juno's first sighting five years ago. Researchers are not sure where they came from or how long they have been circulating, but they do know that moist convection is what keeps them going. After the observation on Jupiter storms lightning, researchers hypothesized this energy transfer.

In Jan. 2022, a team of oceanographers used photos from NASA-funded satellite as raw materials that describe the rich turbulence at Jupiter's poles and the physical forces that drive the large cyclones. It was published in Nature Physics.

Lead author Lia Siegelman and colleagues examined an array of infrared images of Jupiter's north polar region, particularly the polar vortex cluster. The researchers calculated wind speed and direction from the images by tracking the movement of the clouds between images. Using the infrared images, the team were able to calculate cloud thickness. Hot regions correspond to thin clouds. Through these thin clouds, one can see further into Jupiter's atmosphere. On the other hand, the cold regions represent the thick cloud that covers Jupiter's atmosphere.

These findings provided the researchers with information about the system's energy. Because Jovian clouds form when hotter and less dense air rises, the researchers discovered that the rapidly rising air within clouds serves as an energy source for larger scales all the way up to large circumpolar and polar cyclones.

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Previous Study of the Jupiter Cyclone

In a 2019 study posted in NASA, Cheng Li, a Juno scientist from the University of California, stated that the cyclones are new weather phenomena that have never been seen or predicted before. Nature, according to Cheng, is revealing new physics about fluid motions and how giant planet atmospheres work.

Based on what Juno revealed about the magnitude and speeds of the storms, the researchers created computer models to shed light on Jupiter's cyclones. They concentrated on the variables that might prevent these geometric patterns from fusing over time.