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Detailed Reference Information |
Christensen, U.R. (2001). Zonal flow driven by deep convection in the major planets. Geophysical Research Letters 28: doi: 10.1029/2000GL012643. issn: 0094-8276. |
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The cause of the fast zonal winds on the large gas planets is disputed. To investigate their possible origin by convection in the planets' molecular hydrogen layer, I study simple numerical models of thermal convection in a rotating sphere at low Ekman numbers for Rayleigh numbers up to 100 times critical. With stress-free boundaries and high Rayleigh number it is possible to reproduce the observed magnitudes of the zonal and non-zonal flow components at the surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn. While only three flow bands are found for a thick convecting shell, the number increases to seven for a shell with an inner-to-outer radius of 0.6. Âż 2001 American Geophysical Union |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Planetology, Fluid Planets, Atmospheres—structure and dynamics, Planetology, Solar System Objects, Jupiter |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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