The storms on Jupiter have apparent similarities to those on Earth, a new study found. It offers a new way of understanding similar meteorological processes here on our planet.
The finding is quite fascinating as the two planets are millions of miles away from each other and Jupiter is more than 11 times bigger than Earth. The science communication site The Nine Planets revealed that the average distance between Earth and Jupiter is 444 million miles (714 million km).
The study titled, “Frontogenesis at Jovian high latitudes”, was published on June 6 in the journal Nature Physics. It analysed infra-red images taken by the Juno spacecraft at the Jovian poles.
The study noted that the images revealed ubiquitous vortices, which mean a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, with a diameter of hundreds to thousands of kilometres and filaments with a width of tens of kilometres embedded in between the vortices.
The latest research is led by Lia Siegelman, who is a physical oceanographer at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The researchers said that their analysis shows that the filaments are dynamically active.
Siegelman first talked about this in 2018 when she made the connection between our planet and the gas giant. As per a report by phys.org, she noticed a striking similarity between images of Jupiter’s huge cyclones and the ocean turbulence she was studying.
Siegelman said that air and water are both considered fluids to a physicist, hence, she applied ocean physics to Jupiter. “Jupiter is basically an ocean of gas,” she said as quoted.
The initial observation was even published in Nature Physics in 2022, with Siegelman being a co-author. The earlier study had analysed high-resolution infrared images of Jupiter’s cyclones taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
The initial study was aimed at Jupiter’s cyclones. However, while studying, Siegelman also saw wispy tendrils, known as filaments, in the spaces between the gassy vortices.
For a follow-up study, Siegelman used Juno’s detailed imagery as she wanted to understand how they are connected to cyclones on Earth.
The latest study found the filaments resemble what oceanographers and meteorologists refer to as fronts, which are the boundaries of gas or liquid masses with different densities due to changes in attributes such as temperature. On Earth, these are the “warm fronts” or “cold fronts”. We see these words almost every day in weather forecasts.
(With inputs from agencies)