Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-13-2025

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Abstract

Recent observations of convection in the Jovian atmosphere have demonstrated that convection is strongly concentrated at specific locations on the planet. For instance, observations of lightning show that the cyclonic features (e.g., belts and folded filamentary regions) show increased convective activity compared to anticyclonic regions. Meanwhile, the distribution of ammonia and water vapor shows a large enrichment near the equator, which is also suggestive of strong upwelling and convective activity. Marrying these different observations is challenging owing to a lack of data concerning the characteristics of the deep Jovian atmosphere and a resulting inability to observe the true deep source of the various convective phenomena. To understand the nature of these convective events and the role of the structure of the deep atmosphere in driving convective events, we run simulations of cloud formation and convection using the Explicit Planetary hybrid-Isentropic Coordinate General Circulation Model. We vary the dynamics of the atmosphere by parameterizing the deep wind shear and studying the resulting effect on the strength, frequency, and distribution of convective storms. We find that convection in our model is strongly tied to the local dynamics and the deep wind shear. We further decompose the generation of convective available potential energy into three components (thermal, mechanical, and moist/chemical) and find that the chemical mechanism is the strongest component, working to advect water vapor from moisture-rich regions to moisture-poor regions and to drive convection along a “moisture front.”

Publisher's Statement

© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/adcc21

Publication Title

Planetary Science Journal

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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