Eli5-Jupiter’s “hurricane”

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How does Jupiter’s red spot hurricane exist and continue to be present after all these years of observation? Hurricanes in Earth dissipate yet Jupiter’s does not. I don’t understand.

In: Physics

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Jupiter has a different atmosphere, gravity, radiation levels and average temperature than Earth. Science best guess for the duration is that there is no direct contact to the surface to provide friction, basically there is nothing to oppose their momentum. The thick gas layer between the hurricane and the surface prevents energy dissipation therefore storms keep going for a long time.
Also there is other factors like the direction of rotation but I think the friction one is the main explanation.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Jupiter is much bigger, so the forces at work on its weather are much more intense and everything essentially works at a slower time scale. But the biggest reason is that Jupiter doesn’t have land masses, because land masses are what ultimately tends to destroy hurricanes. Hurricanes generally consistently build up energy while they are above water, and then lose it as soon as they start to hit land.

Jupiter probably does have a solid surface somewhere way down there, but it is so far down there it has absolutely no effect on the upper atmospheric levels at all.