Séminaire
The strong east–west jet flows on the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, have persisted for hundreds of years. Yet, experimental studies cannot reach the planetary regime and similarly strong and quasi-steady jets have been reproduced only in numerical models under simplifying assumptions and limitations. Two models have been proposed: a shallow model where jets are confined to the weather layer and a deep model where the jets extend into the planetary molecular envelope. We will show in a hydrodynamic laboratory experiment that turbulent flows naturally generate multiple, alternating jets in a rapidly rotating cylindrical container. The observed properties of gas giants’ jets are only now reproduced in a laboratory device emulating the deep model. The device has been named the "Jovian Jets Jacuzzi". Our findings demonstrate that long-lived jets can persist at high latitudes even under conditions including viscous dissipation and friction and bear relevance to the shallow versus deep models debate in the context of the ongoing Juno mission.
marie-pierre.lefebvre@lmd.jussieu.fr