Venus's major cloud feature as an equatorially trapped wave distorted by the wind
The superrotation of the atmospheres of slowly rotating bodies is a long-standing problem yet unsolved in atmospheric dynamics. On Venus, the most extreme case known of superrotation, this is accompanied and influenced by a recurrent planetary-scale cloud structure, known as the Y feature. So far, n...
| Autores: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2015 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/400477 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/400477 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Venus Waves Clouds |
| Sumario: | The superrotation of the atmospheres of slowly rotating bodies is a long-standing problem yet unsolved in atmospheric dynamics. On Venus, the most extreme case known of superrotation, this is accompanied and influenced by a recurrent planetary-scale cloud structure, known as the Y feature. So far, no model has simultaneously reproduced its shape, temporal evolution, related wind field, nor the relation between its dynamics and the unknown UV-absorbing aerosol that produces its dark morphology. In this paper we present an analytical model for a Kelvin-like wave that offers an explanation of these peculiarities. Under Venus cyclostrophic conditions, this wave is equatorially and vertically trapped where zonal winds peak and extends 7 km in altitude, and its vertical wind perturbations are shown to produce upwelling of the UV absorber. The Y-feature morphology and its 30 day evolution are reproduced as distortions of the wave structure by the Venus winds. ©2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. |
|---|