Merging of Vortices in the Atmosphere of Jupiter: An Analysis of Voyager lmages
Abstract
We have studied interactions between stable oval structures (spots) using the Voyager 2 cylindrical projection mosaics. In contrast with the solitary wave type of interaction, collisions between spots are irreversible. Most interactions (23 out of 27 cases) lead to merging of the two original spots. The other type of interaction (4 out of 27 cases) is simply a near miss—the spots pass around each other. Interactions of spots with filamentary regions, which are actively changing and more amorphous than spots, usually lead to the disappearance of the spot. Filamentary regions are also the major source of spots. Stable spots do not produce other spots. Instead, spots destroy each other by merging. Most spots are anticyclonic and sit in anticyclonic shear zones. Filamentary regions are cyclonic and sit in cyclonic shear zones. Larger spots are more elliptical than smaller ones. The most common spots have major diameters of 2000 km and minor diameters of 1500 km.
Additional Information
© 1986 Academic Press, Inc. Received June 3. 1985: revised September 26. 1985. We thank C. Avis. S. A. Collins. and G. W. Garneau for their assistance in this project. One of us ( M.-M. Mac Low) was supported as an Undergraduate Summer Fellow of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. California Institute of Technology, while this research was in progress. The research was supported by NASA Grants NAGW-5X and NAGW-159, and by Voyager project funds.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 35836
- DOI
- 10.1016/0019-1035(86)90143-0
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20121205-142812761
- Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
- NAGW-58
- NASA
- NAGW-159
- NASA
- Created
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2012-12-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences