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Abstract:

The regions of Saturn’s cloud-covered atmosphere polewards of 60^o latitude are dominated in each hemisphere near the cloud tops by an intense, cyclonic polar vortex surrounded by a strong, high latitude eastward zonal jet. In the north, this high latitude jet takes the form of a remarkably regular zonal wavenumber m=6 hexagonal pattern that has been present at least since the Voyager spacecraft encounters with Saturn in 1980-81, and probably much longer. The origin of this feature, and the absence of a similar feature in the south, has remained poorly understood since its discovery. In this work, we present some new analyses of horizontal wind measurements at Saturn’s cloud tops polewards of 60 degrees in both the northern and southern hemispheres, previously published by Antuñano et al. (2015) using images from the Cassini mission, in which we compute kinetic energy spectra and the transfer rates of kinetic energy (KE) and enstrophy between different scales. 2D KE spectra are consistent with a zonostrophic regime, with a steep��(~n^-5) spectrum for the mean zonal flow (n is the total wavenumber) and a shallower Kolmogorov-like KE spectrum (~n^-5/3)��for the residual (eddy) flow, much as previously found for Jupiter’s atmosphere (Galperin et al. 2014; Young & Read 2017). Three different methods are used to compute the energy and enstrophy transfers, (a) as latitude-dependent zonal spectral fluxes, (b) as latitude-dependent structure functions and (c) as spatially filtered energy fluxes. The results of all three methods are largely in agreement in indicating a direct (forward) enstrophy cascade across most scales, averaged across the whole domain, an inverse kinetic energy cascade to large scales and a weak direct KE cascade at the smallest scales. The pattern of transfers has a more complex dependence on latitude, however. But it is clear that the m=6 North Polar Hexagon (NPH) wave was transferring KE into its zonal jet at 78^o N (planetographic) at a rate of ∏_E ≈ 1.8 x 10^-4 W kg^-1��at the time the Cassini images were acquired. This implies that the NPH was not maintained by a barotropic instability at this time, but may have been driven via a baroclinic instability or possibly from deep convection. Further implications of these results will be discussed.

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References

Antuñano, A., T. del Río-Gaztelurrutia, A. Sánchez-Lavega, and R. Hueso (2015), Dynamics of Saturn’s polar regions, J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 120, 155–176, doi:10.1002/2014JE004709.

Galperin, B., R. M.B. Young, S. Sukoriansky, N. Dikovskaya, P. L. Read, A.��J. Lancaster & D. Armstrong (2014) Cassini observations reveal a regime of zonostrophic macroturbulence on Jupiter, Icarus, 229, 295–320.doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2013.08.030

Young, R. M. B. & Read, P. L. (2017) Forward and inverse kinetic energy cascades in Jupiter’s turbulent weather layer, Nature Phys., 13, 1135-1140. Doi:10.1038/NPHYS4227

Abstract:

Abstract:

Agriculture is a significant contributor to anthropogenic global warming, and reducing agricultural emissions—largely methane and nitrous oxide—could play a significant role in climate change mitigation. However, there are important differences between carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a stock pollutant, and methane (CH4), which is predominantly a flow pollutant. These dynamics mean that conventional reporting of aggregated CO2-equivalent emission rates is highly ambiguous and does not straightforwardly reflect historical or anticipated contributions to global temperature change. As a result, the roles and responsibilities of different sectors emitting different gases are similarly obscured by the common means of communicating emission reduction scenarios using CO2-equivalence. We argue for a shift in how we report agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and think about their mitigation to better reflect the distinct roles of different greenhouse gases. Policy-makers, stakeholders, and society at large should also be reminded that the role of agriculture in climate mitigation is a much broader topic than climate science alone can inform, including considerations of economic and technical feasibility, preferences for food supply and land-use, and notions of fairness and justice. A more nuanced perspective on the impacts of different emissions could aid these conversations.

Abstract:

The earliest atmospheres of rocky planets originate from extensive volatile release during magma ocean epochs that occur during assembly of the planet. These establish the initial distribution of the major volatile elements between different chemical reservoirs that subsequently evolve via geological cycles. Current theoretical techniques are limited in exploring the anticipated range of compositional and thermal scenarios of early planetary evolution, even though these are of prime importance to aid astronomical inferences on the environmental context and geological history of extrasolar planets. Here, we present a coupled numerical framework that links an evolutionary, vertically‐resolved model of the planetary silicate mantle with a radiative‐convective model of the atmosphere. Using this method we investigate the early evolution of idealized Earth‐sized rocky planets with end‐member, clear‐sky atmospheres dominated by either H2, H2O, CO2, CH4, CO, O2, or N2. We find central metrics of early planetary evolution, such as energy gradient, sequence of mantle solidification, surface pressure, or vertical stratification of the atmosphere, to be intimately controlled by the dominant volatile and outgassing history of the planet. Thermal sequences fall into three general classes with increasing cooling timescale: CO, N2, and O2 with minimal effect, H2O, CO2, and CH4 with intermediate influence, and H2 with several orders of magnitude increase in solidification time and atmosphere vertical stratification. Our numerical experiments exemplify the capabilities of the presented modeling framework and link the interior and atmospheric evolution of rocky exoplanets with multi‐wavelength astronomical observations.

Abstract:

The data comprise two 2-dimensional gridded maps of horizontal wind measurements covering the north and south polar regions of Saturn, as previously published by Antuñano et al. (2015). As fully described in that paper, these measurements were derived from sets of Cassini Orbiter Imaging Sub-System (ISS) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) images using the continuum band CB2 and CB3 filters, acquired for the northern hemisphere in June 2013 and for the southern hemisphere using WAC CB2 and CB3 images taken in October 2006 and December 2008. Additional NAC images using the CB2 and red filters taken in July 2008 were also used to analyse the southern polar vortex. The WAC images covered a region extending from a planetocentric latitude of around 60-65 degrees to each pole (apart from a segment in longitude between around 35 - 110 degrees W) with a horizontal resolution equivalent to around 0.05 degrees latitude (around 50km) per pixel, while NAC images were mostly used for the polar vortices, with a resolution equivalent to around 0.01 degrees latitude (around 10 km) per pixel. Horizontal velocities were obtained using semi-automated image correlation methods between pairs of images separated in time by intervals of approximately 1-10 hours. The correlation algorithm used pixel box sizes of 23 x 23 (in the north) or 25 x 25 (in the south), leading to a spatial resolution of the velocity vectors equivalent to around 1 degree latitude or 1000 km outside the polar vortices, reducing to around 0.2 degrees or 200 km within the polar vortices themselves. The automatically generated velocity vectors were supplemented by a small number (around 1% of the total) of vectors obtained manually from the motion of visually identified cloud tracers. The estimated measurement uncertainty on each vector was around 5-10 m/s. The original velocity vectors from Antuñano et al. (2015) were interpolated onto a regular latitude-longitude grid using convex hulls and Delauney triangulation via the QHULL routine of the Interactive Data Language (IDL). The final datasets are held on a regular grid separated by 3-4 degrees in longitude and 0.23 degrees in latitude. Data are stored as two text files, tabulating the latitude and (west) longitude of each point and the eastward and northward velocity components respectively in units of m/s. Reference: Antuñano,A., del Río-Gaztelurrutia,T., Sánchez-Lavega,A., & Hueso, R. (2015). Dynamics of Saturn’s polar regions. J. Geophys. Res.: Planets, 120, 155–176. doi: 10.1002/2014JE004709