Intermediate 48 Hours Weather Forecast Test Run for Jupiter's South Polar Region during PJ19

2019-12-20 13:25 UT
Credit : NASA / JPL /SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt © cc by
Submitted By : Maquet-80
Mission Phase : PERIJOVE 19

A fluid dynamical 2D model rotating with Jupiter's System III rotation rate is started with a map of PJ19 vorticity measurements of the south polar region between 75 and 90 degrees south (azimuthal, equidistant, planetocentric) as initial condition. The vorticity map is based on a sequence of PJ19 JunoCam images.

Relative vorticities are encoded in color, blue for cyclonic, orange for anticyclonic relative vorticity. The animated gif covers 48 hours, with one frame per real-time hour. Played with 25 fps, the result is a 90,000-fold time-lapsed animation.

This test run reproduces the formation of spiral filaments around the initially unsharply modeled CPCs in a fairly realistic way.

It also shows anticyclonic vortex sheet roll-ups forming as artifacts along the right boundary of the simulated area, one of the software issues revealed by this test run, and to be fixed for meaningful longer-term forecasts.