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A simple inertial model for Neptune's zonal circulationVoyager imaging observations of zonal cloud-tracked winds on Neptune revealed a strongly subrotational equatorial jet with a speed approaching 500 m/s and generally decreasing retrograde motion toward the poles. The wind data are interpreted with a speculative but revealingly simple model based on steady gradient flow balance and an assumed global homogenization of potential vorticity for shallow layer motion. The prescribed model flow profile relates the equatorial velocity to the mid-latitude shear, in reasonable agreement with the available data, and implies a global horizontal deformation scale L(D) of about 3000 km.
Document ID
19910031786
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Allison, Michael
(NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies New York, United States)
Lumetta, James T.
(Columbia University New York, United States)
Date Acquired
August 15, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: Geophysical Research Letters
Volume: 17
ISSN: 0094-8276
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
91A16409
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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