Great Red Spot Question

[herpguy]

If the Great Red Spot on Jupiter has wind speeds of 400 mi/h, then how is it high pressure when low pressure causes fast wind? Please reply.

 

[sunspot]

Low pressure systems on earth are based on the condensation of water as cloud and rain. If the earth had no water on its surface, there would only be high pressure systems and circulations due to the coriolis force. The forward or clockwise circulation of the red spot of jupiter is a low pressure circulation, but not due to water. It may be due to heat is rising up from equatorial region of the planet pulling in colder air from the poles. Without the counterclockwise eddies of water based low pressure systems, the forward circulations of Jupiter can not cancel, but become reinforced by there being only forward circulations, keeping the red spot storm active for centuries.

[aguy2]

The winds in the photo overlay are counterclockwise aren't they?

 

aguy2

[insane_alien]

sunspot is talking crap again. anway... either the camera image is reverse or the spot is on the err... "southern"hemisphere of the planet. i you work out north and south by the rotation o the planet.

[[Tycho?]]

Low pressure systems on earth are based on the condensation of water as cloud and rain. If the earth had no water on its surface, there would only be high pressure systems and circulations due to the coriolis force. The forward or clockwise circulation of the red spot of jupiter is a low pressure circulation, but not due to water. It may be due to heat is rising up from equatorial region of the planet pulling in colder air from the poles. Without the counterclockwise eddies of water based low pressure systems, the forward circulations of Jupiter can not cancel, but become reinforced by there being only forward circulations, keeping the red spot storm active for centuries.

 

What the hell?

[Ophiolite]

Large pressure differentials cause high winds. You can't have high pressure without low pressure, since both are relative terms.

I concur with Tycho and insanse alien: sunspot is showing a singular ignorance of the fundamentals of climatology and atmospheric ciculation.

[sunspot]

Sorry about my too quick to conclude thought analysis. I stand corrected. In the following link http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001123.html, there is a nice movie of the red spot, as well as some of the local wind bands.

 

Although this is a very limited view of Jupiter, one may notice that the counterclockwise circulations, including the red spot, appear to be large and stable. The clockwise circulations attempt to form, but seem to break up. I may have got my directions backwards but it appears to lead to the same affect.

 

To add one additional observation to the analysis, it has been proven that the core of the earth rotates faster than the surface http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/050825_earthcore.html. If one considers the amount of friction (against the high density viscoplastic mantle) that needs to constantly be overcome to keep this faster core rotation going, one would expect a tremendous core energy source. The same is more than likely true for Jupiter. It is probably more than a uniform perpetual rotating machine. This is reflected in the less than uniform kinetic energy in the atmosphere.

[Ophiolite]

The implications of your last post turn out to be invalid. Jupiter's internal energy sources are understood to be a combination of heat remaining from the gravitational collapse of Jupiter and the condensation of helium droplets at considerable depth.

There may be a small rocky core, but the bulk of the interior consists of a hyrdogen:helium mix, with hydrogen predominating. At depth the hydrogen, though still liquid, is metallic in character.

There is thus no need and no means for the heat generation source you have proposed.

In regard to that source on Earth - frictional drag between the core and the mantle - I should be interested to see the calculations that demonstrate how the miniscule difference in rotational rates contribute a significant amount of frictional heating.

The following article is a good overview of our current knowledge of Jupiter, from clouds to core. http://www.space.com/reference/brit/jupiter/climate.html