Jupiter’s Great Red Spot: strong interactions with incoming anticyclones in 2019

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS), a giant anticyclone, is the largest and longest-lived of all the vortices observed in planetary atmospheres. During its history, the GRS has shrunk to half its size since 1879, and encountered many smaller anticyclones and other dynamical features that might tend to e...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Sanchez Lavega, Agustin, Anguiano Arteaga, A, Iñurrigarro, Peio, García Melendo, Enrique José|||0000-0002-3354-1140, Legarreta, Jon J., Hueso, Ricardo, Sanz Requena, Jose Francisco, Perez Hoyos, Santiago, Mendikoa, Iñigo, Soria Guerrero, Manel|||0000-0002-4112-6078, Rojas, Jose Félix, Andrés Carcasona, Marc, Prat Gasull, Arnau, Ordoñez Etxebarria, I, Rogers, John H, Foster, Clyde, Mizumoto, S, Casely, A, Hansen, C. J., Orton, Glenn S., Momary, T, Eichstädt, Gerald
Format: article
Publication Date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repository:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/343816
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/343816
https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020JE006686
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Vortex-motion
Jupiter (Planet)--Atmosphere
Jupiter
Great Red Spot
Planetary atmospheres
Atmospheres simulations
GRS flakes
Vorticitat
Júpiter (Planeta) -- Atmosfera
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Física
Description
Summary:Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS), a giant anticyclone, is the largest and longest-lived of all the vortices observed in planetary atmospheres. During its history, the GRS has shrunk to half its size since 1879, and encountered many smaller anticyclones and other dynamical features that might tend to erode it. In 2018-2020, while having a historically small size, its structure and even its survival appeared to be threatened when a series of anticyclones moving in from the east tore off large fragments of the red area and distorted its shape. In this work we report observations of the dynamics of these interactions and show that as a result the GRS increased its internal rotation velocity, maintaining its vorticity but decreasing its visible area, and suffering a transient change in its otherwise steady 90-day oscillation in longitude. From a radiative transfer analysis and numerical simulations of the dynamics we show that the interactions affected the upper cloud tops of the GRS. We argue that the intense vorticity of the GRS, together with its larger size and depth compared to the interacting vortices, guarantees its long lifetime.

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