Dynamics of Jupiter’s Atmosphere

Abstract

Observations of the atmosphere of Jupiter by the imaging and infrared instruments on the Voyager spacecraft have been analysed to provide new insight into the meteorology of Jupiter. Like the Earth, the atmosphere of Jupiter appears to behave in a quasi-geostrophic manner. For a period prior to the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 encounters, the analysis on imaging data indicated that the eddy momentum transfer into the mean zonal flow was a major driving mechanism for the motions. The jet structures are a barotropic phenomena, which the large-scale belts and zones depend on for the baroclinicity of the motions and form a family of features. The initial analysis shows that the meteorologies of the Earth and Jupiter have more in common than was previously thought. © 1982.