HR: 0800h
AN: ED51A-0011    [Abstracts]
TI: Generating Banded Zonal Flows on Jupiter and Saturn
AU: * Aurnou, J M
EM: aurnou@ucla.edu
AF: UCLA, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AU: Heimpel, M H
EM: mheimpel@phys.ualberta.ca
AF: University of Alberta, Department of Physics, Edmonton, AB T6G 2J1 Canada
AB: The alternating bands of Jupiter and Saturn, represent surface winds with speeds of order 100 m/s. The Galileo and Cassini sattelite missions have and will continue to provide stunning visual images and data from the surface of these gas giants. In addition to detailed spatial resolution, these satellite missions also yield information on the temporal evolution of the surface flow. Models of thermally-driven, rapidly-rotating deep spherical shell convection naturally develop strong zonal flows with alternating bands, similar to those observed on the giant planets. Here we will present images and results from numerical simulations to demonstrate how these zonal flows can be convectively generated by Reynolds stresses at low latitudes and by thermal winds processes at higher latitudes. Comparisons will be presented between our results and images and surface wind data from Jupiter and Saturn.
DE: 5707 Atmospheres--structure and dynamics
DE: 3314 Convective processes
DE: 3319 General circulation
DE: 0343 Planetary atmospheres (5405, 5407, 5409, 5704, 5705, 5707)
DE: 0815 Informal education
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting