On the gravitational signature of zonal flows in Jupiter-like planets: An analytical solution and its numerical validation

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• 作者：Dali Kong^a ; ^b ; Keke Zhang^b ; ^c ; ^{kzhang@ex.ac.uk} ; Gerald Schubert^d
• 关键词：Gaseous planets ; Zonal flow ; Rotation
• 刊名：Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：263
• 期：Complete
• 页码：1-6
• 全文大小：606 K
• 卷排序：263

文摘

The Juno spacecraft, which has just arrived at Jupiter, will measure the gravitational signature of a zonal flow possibly taking place in the planet’s deep interior; we derive the first analytical solution for the density anomaly induced by an internal zonal flow in rapidly rotating Jupiter-like planets. We compare the density anomaly and the spectrum of the Jovian zonal gravitational coefficients of the analytical solution to those obtained from a fully numerical solution based on a three-dimensional finite element method; the two show excellent agreement. We apply the analytical solution to a rapidly rotating Jupiter-like planet and show that there exists a close relationship between the spatial structure of the zonal flow and the spectrum of zonal gravitational coefficients. We discuss implications of the new analytical solution for interpreting the future high-precision gravitational measurements of the Juno spacecraft.