Renewed acceleration of the 24° N jet on Jupiter |
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| Authors: | John H Rogers Hans-Jörg Mettig |
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| Institution: | British Astronomical Association, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J ODU, UK |
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| Abstract: | Jupiter's eastward jet at 24° N, which formerly had the fastest winds on the planet, has maintained a less extreme speed of ∼135 m/s since 1991, carrying a series of long-lived vortices at 125 m/s. In 2002-2003, as the albedo of the adjacent North Temperate Belt increased, the tracks of the vortices accelerated slightly, and they had disappeared by 2005. In 2005, small tracers had a mean speed of 146.4 (±0.9) m/s, significantly faster than the previous mean speed of the jet, suggesting that the jet peak itself has accelerated at cloud-top level, and that the jet is beginning to return to the super-fast state. These changes may resemble the even greater transformations occurring in the equatorial jet of Saturn. |
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| Keywords: | Jupiter atmosphere Saturn atmosphere Atmospheres dynamics |
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