Origin of Jupiter’s cloud-level zonal winds remains a puzzle even after Juno

How far Jupiter’s cloud-level zonal winds penetrate into its interior, a question related to the origin of the winds, has long been a major puzzle about Jupiter. There exist two different views: the shallow scenario in which the cloud-level winds are confined within the thin weather layer at cloud t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2018-08, Vol.115 (34), p.8499-8504
Main Authors: Kong, Dali, Zhang, Keke, Schubert, Gerald, Anderson, John D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clouds
Convection
Free convection
Gravitation
Gravitational fields
Gravity
Inverse problems
Jupiter
Jupiter atmosphere
Jupiter probes
Physical Sciences
Spacecraft
Wind
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Summary:How far Jupiter’s cloud-level zonal winds penetrate into its interior, a question related to the origin of the winds, has long been a major puzzle about Jupiter. There exist two different views: the shallow scenario in which the cloud-level winds are confined within the thin weather layer at cloud top and the deep scenario in which the cloud-level winds manifest thermal convection in the deep interior. We interpret, using two different models corresponding to the two scenarios, the high-precision measurements of Jupiter’s equatorially antisymmetric gravitational field by the Juno spacecraft. We demonstrate, based on the thermal-gravitational wind equation, that both the shallow and deep cloud-level winds models are capable of explaining the measured odd gravitational coefficients within the measured uncertainties, reflecting the nonunique nature of the gravity inverse problem. We conclude that the high-precision Juno gravity measurements cannot provide an answer to the long-standing question about the origin of Jupiter’s cloud-level zonal winds.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1805927115