|
|
Re: GREAT RED SPOT ON JUPITER AND UNUSUAL ANTICYCLONE OVER RUSSIAFrom: STALKER2002
Subject: General
Date/Time 2010-07-30 03:41:10
Remote IP: 79.139.128.195
MessageGreat Red Spot
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Great Red Spot
The Great Red Spot (GRS) is a persistent anticyclonic storm, 22° south of Jupiter's equator, which has lasted for at least 180 years and possibly as long as 345 years or more.[65][66] The storm is large enough to be visible through Earth-based telescopes.
An infrared image of GRS (top) showing its warm center, taken by the ground based Very Large Telescope. An image made by the Hubble Space Telescope (bottom) is shown for comparison.
The GRS rotates counterclockwise, with a period of about six Earth days[67] or 14 Jovian days. Its dimensions are 24–40,000 km west–to–east and 12–14,000 km south–to–north. The spot is large enough to contain two or three planets the size of Earth. At the start of 2004, the Great Red Spot had approximately half the longitudinal extent it had a century ago, when it was 40,000 km in diameter. At the present rate of reduction it could potentially become circular by 2040, although this is unlikely because of the distortion effect of the neighboring jet streams.[68] It is not known how long the spot will last, or whether the change is a result of normal fluctuations.[69]
According to a study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, between 1996 and 2006 the spot lost 15 percent of its diameter along its major axis. Xylar Asay-Davis, who was on the team that conducted the study, noted that the spot is not in danger of disappearing because "[v]elocity is a more robust measurement because the clouds associated with the Red Spot are also strongly influenced by numerous other phenomena in the surrounding atmosphere."[70]
Infrared data have long indicated that the Great Red Spot is colder (and thus, higher in altitude) than most of the other clouds on the planet;[71] the cloudtops of the GRS are about 8 km above the surrounding clouds. Furthermore, careful tracking of atmospheric features revealed the spot's counterclockwise circulation as far back as 1966—observations dramatically confirmed by the first time-lapse movies from the Voyager flybys.[72] The spot is spatially confined by a modest eastward jet stream (prograde) to its south and a very strong westward (retrograde) one to its north.[73] Though winds around the edge of the spot peak at about 120 m/s (432 km/h), currents inside it seem stagnant, with little inflow or outflow.[74] The rotation period of the spot has decreased with time, perhaps as a direct result of its steady reduction in size.[75] In 2010, astronomers imaged the GRS in the far infrared (from 8.5 to 24 μm) with a spatial resolution higher than ever before and found that its central, reddest region is warmer than its surroundings by between 3–4 K. The warm airmass is located in the upper troposphere in the pressure range of 200–500 mbar. This warm central spot slowly counter-rotates and may be caused by a weak subsidence of air in the center of GRS.[76]
BY THE WAY THIS GREAT ANTICYCLONE RED SPOT ON JUPITER IS A SOLITON OF ROSSBY GEOPHYSICAL HYDRODYNAMICAL WAVE!
[Top of List] [Previous Thread] [Next Thread]
|
|
|
|
This Forum is for posting on topics of interest to the Taoist (Daoist) community. Tao is exceptionally broad. Will your post add to the collective balance, harmony, & wisdom? Posts/links deemed obscene, prejudicial, irrelevant, inflammatory, or falsely impersonating others may be removed at Healing Tao USA's discretion. The Forum community thanks you for respecting the registration privilege!
|
|
|
|