The upper atmosphere over Jupiter's famous red spot - a giant storm that has been going on for centuries - is much warmer than anywhere else on this gas giant. A new study, published in the journal Nature, leads scientists to speculate that the motions of a giant storm that rages in the planet's lower atmosphere are responsible for the higher temperature in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. In other words, this means that the two layers of the planet's atmosphere are interconnected and can influence each other.
The Great Red Spot, as it is called, is one of the most recognizable features of Jupiter. As noted in the NASA aerospace agency, this giant hurricane covers an area of several thousand kilometers above the planet's surface and boasts winds that blow at speeds of up to 650 kilometers per hour. The Great Red Spot has been observed since the late 1800s. Astronomers all this time are trying to understand how this storm was formed and what kind of atmosphere is around it.
In our time, scientists, using data obtained using the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, found that the atmosphere of this region is about 1600 degrees Kelvin (or about 1300 degrees Celsius) hotter than the average temperature of the upper atmosphere over the rest surface of Jupiter, which is about 626 degrees Celsius. This is explained by the fact that the turbulent flows of this giant storm create acoustic waves directed from the planet, which subsequently shake (and thereby heat up) the atoms in the upper atmosphere, creating such significant differences in temperature.
This discovery suggests that the lower layer and the upper layer of Jupiter's atmosphere are interconnected and capable of influencing each other. This fact is quite surprising when you consider that the upper layer of the planet's atmosphere is about 800 kilometers wider than the lower layer.
“We didn't think the two regions could be interconnected in any special way, but it turns out that they are not,” says lead researcher James O'Donoghue, a planetary explorer at Boston University.
This relationship can also help explain the mystery of the planetary "energy crisis" that has plagued planetary scientists for many years. It consists in the fact that the upper layers of the atmosphere of Jupiter, and indeed of all the gas giants of our solar system, are much hotter than they should be. Computer models show that given how far from the Sun the planet is, the temperature of Jupiter's upper atmosphere should actually be around 300 degrees Kelvin (27 degrees Celsius). However, direct observations show that its upper atmosphere is much hotter than this indicator. Scientists were not entirely sure how to explain this temperature discrepancy, but a new study prompted experts to conclude that excess heat comes from currents that are in the lower atmosphere.
Previously, it was thought that the auroras at the poles of Jupiter could spread deeper into the atmosphere and thereby heat the rest of it. However, as O'Donoghue notes, computer models have shown that this is unlikely. Due to the superfast winds moving from east to west along the equator of Jupiter, auroras most often remain exclusively at the poles of the planet. Another explanation was proposed related to the acoustic features of the storms. However, no direct evidence of this was found. A new study of temperatures over the Great Red Spot of Jupiter has given scientists a hint of how this process actually occurs.
An illustration of how the Great Red Spot sends waves into the planet's upper atmosphere
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“A good analogy is the way we stir a cup of coffee with a spoon,” says O'Donoghue.
“If you rotate a spoon clockwise and then sharply rotate it counterclockwise, a lot of waves and splashes will form on the surface of the coffee. And by stirring the coffee this way, you actually heat it up. Moreover, as part of this stirring, some sound waves are generated.
Roughly the same thing happens with the Great Red Spot. As the storm rotates counterclockwise, it hits the currents of the lower atmosphere, which move clockwise, creating colossal turbulence. This also causes the acoustic waves to rise vertically upward. The waves begin to shake the atoms in the upper atmosphere and heat it up.
Similar processes are taking place on Earth. For example, when air currents move over the Andes, the air collides with mountains, and acoustic waves are formed that rise into the upper atmosphere, slightly heating it. It is noted that even over hurricanes and tsunamis that occur on Earth, the atmosphere also becomes somewhat warmer.
Scientists now have very compelling evidence of what is actually happening with Jupiter's Great Red Spot. In their opinion, the same processes can take place over other areas of the surface of this planet. In the future, the researchers plan to start observing the smaller storms of the gas giant and subsequently create a fairly accurate temperature map of its upper atmosphere.
It should also be recalled that recently the spacecraft "Juno" entered the orbit of Jupiter, which will also study this gigantic world and will be able to provide the most accurate data on this planet. Scientists believe that the probe is very likely to find similar processes for heating the atmosphere over smaller hurricanes. In addition, the device, due to its powerful observation equipment, will allow to look even deeper inside the Great Red Spot.
"The article under review today suggests that the Great Red Spot is responsible for the significant heating of the atmosphere above it," says Mike Janssen, a member of the Juno mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Our apparatus will help explain what is responsible for the Great Red Spot itself."
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK