HR: 0800h
AN: P51B-1428    [Abstracts]
TI: Interaction of Moist Convection With Jupiter's Zonal Jets
AU: * Li, L
EM: liming@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, MS 150-21, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
AU: Ingersoll, A P
EM: api@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, MS 150-21, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
AU: Huang, X
EM: hxl@gps.caltech.edu
AF: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, MS 150-21, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125
AB: Since Voyager times, observations have suggested that Jupiter's zonal jets violate the barotropic stability criterion (BSTC) (Ingersoll et al., 1981; Limaye, 1986; Li et al., in press). Recently, images from the Cassini Imaging Science System (ISS) (Porco et al., 2003; Li et al., in press) and from the Galileo imaging system (Little et al., 1999; Gierasch et al., 2000) have revealed important features of moist convection on Jupiter and suggest that moist convection may be driving the zonal jets. Here we investigate the interaction of moist convection with the zonal jets in a reduced-gravity quasi-geostrophic model using a moist convection parameterization that is based on the new observations. Our study shows that moist convection can excite multiple jets when the velocity of the flow in the deep underlying layer is zero, but these jets never violate the BSTC. However, based on a model of the interaction between the magnetic field and the zonal flow, Liu and Stevenson (2003, DPS 35th meeting) predict that there are easterly flows in the deep underlying layer at middle latitudes. With easterly flows in the deep underlying layer we can get stable multiple jets that violate the BSTC. Furthermore, the modeled jets have almost same width and amplitude as the observed jets. An easterly flow in the lower layer provides a simple explanation for why the upper layer jets are stable even though they violate the BSTC. The model reproduces the tilted, chevron-shaped cloud features provided we assume that the clouds persist longer than the moist convective storms that produce them.
DE: 5700 PLANETOLOGY: FLUID PLANETS
DE: 5705 Atmospheres--evolution
DE: 5707 Atmospheres--structure and dynamics
DE: 5739 Meteorology (3346)
DE: 6220 Jupiter
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting