Atmospheric Gravity Waves on Giant Planets.
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Internal gravity waves are a common feature of stratified fluids. They facilitate
transport of momentum and energy – thus influencing the evolution of the fluid.
There is a large body of research addressing the behaviour of gravity waves in
the terrestrial atmosphere. This thesis builds and extends the research to giant
planets – in particular to close-in extrasolar giant planets and the solar system
giant planet, Jupiter. Because the atmospheres of close-in giant planets are
expected to be strongly stratified, knowledge of the behaviour of gravity waves
in such atmospheres is especially important.
Close-in giant planets are thought to have their rotations and orbital period
1:1 synchronised, i.e., they are “tidally locked”. Such planets do not exist in
the Solar System. However, many are known from observations of extrasolar
systems. Their synchronisation means that they have a permanent day-side
and night-side leading to interesting atmospheric dynamics. Modelling these
circulations with global circulation models (GCMs) and comparing these models
with observations is an active research area. However, many GCMs filter
some or all gravity waves removing their effects. This thesis addresses this
by explicitly looking at the effects gravity waves can have on the circulation.
It is shown that gravity waves provide a mechanism for accelerating, decelerating,
and heating the flow. Further, horizontally propagating gravity waves
are shown to provide a possible means for coupling the day- and night-sides of
tidally locked planets.
As well as affecting the dynamics of the atmosphere, gravity wave behaviour is
affected by the dynamics of the atmosphere. Therefore, gravity waves can be
used to explore atmospheric properties. In this thesis gravity waves observed
in Jupiter’s atmosphere, by the Galileo probe, are used to identify features of
Jupiter’s atmosphere such as the altitude of the turbopause and the vertical
profile of zonal winds at the probe entry site.
Authors
Watkins, Christopher LloydCollections
- Theses [3706]