Planetary weather

damienpaul · #1 (**permalink**) 21-December-2003, 03:51 AM

I was wondering if the folks in here could please direct me to sources for information about planetary weather.

Matthew · #2 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 01:36 AM

Space Weather

Space Enviroment Centre (NOAA)

damienpaul · #3 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 02:03 AM

Thank yo for that, and what a great link!

zephyr46 · #4 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 02:10 AM

Sad isn't it

I wish there was at least a Jovian weather report once a month.

SOHO

The WIND-SWE Home Page (has a Java Applet showing the positions of voyager 1 and 2)

Matthew · #5 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Thank yo for that, and what a great link!

Happy to help.

But unfortunetly there isn't as much soley on planetary weather. Those two websites looked more on space weather. We don't know all that much about the weather on other planets, we mainly study weather on other planets by looking at still images or movies taken thousands of kilometres away.

damienpaul · #6 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 02:46 AM

probably far more accurate than what we can do for Earth on Earth!

VanderL · #7 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:01 PM

Funny thing is that all planets with atmospheres have a very active weather system, no matter how small the input of energy from the Sun. Winds on Neptune are among the strongest found in the solar system and even Pluto seems to have weather. If nor from the Sun, I wonder where the energy comes from.

damienpaul · #8 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:20 PM

internal energy, from reactions in the core perhaps?

Dan Luna · #9 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:30 PM

My BBC "Planets" DVD says the atmosphere on the warmer planets is more turbulent and this slows the winds down. On the colder planets they just keep going round.

damienpaul · #10 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:32 PM

very interesting....i assume turbulent in 3 dimensions, but where is the source of the wind on say Neptune as VanderL asked, internal sources?

Dan Luna · #11 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:43 PM

I suppose the atmosphere would lag behind the spin of any planet, but now I'll have to go hunting for the answer.

damienpaul · #12 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:44 PM

yes, of course, as the Gas Giants have a much greater spin velocity!!!!!

VanderL · #13 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:48 PM

Internal energy doesn't seem very likely. It would mean that the surface temperature of Neptune should be very high. By the way, the winds are strongest in the outer atmosphere layers, which would also be very hard to explain with internal energy.
Turbulence keeping the wind velocity down? That's a new one, hadn't heard it before. That would mean that the inner planets have a turbulent atmosphere and the outer planets would have a "stratified" atmosphere,. I'm not sure, but doesn't Saturn have big storms in it's atmosphere, like the Red Spot (or whatever it is named) on Jupiter?

damienpaul · #14 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:54 PM

i'd place my money on the fast rotation of the Outer Gas Giants....

Dan Luna · #15 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 04:58 PM

It seems a bit of a mystery really, this article suggests heat due to gravitational contraction:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/May20...50406.As.r.html

VanderL · #16 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 05:26 PM

Thanks,

In fact in the article it is said that internal energy by gravitational contraction causes the high winds on Neptune and all the other gas giants. I'm not aware of any direct temperature measurements that confirms this. Did any of the probes that were dropped in Jupiter record temperature measurements?

damienpaul · #17 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 05:28 PM

so to summarise...in my mind there are 3 possibilities:

1. gravitational contraction
2. fast rotation
3. the biggest cooking festival in the solar system!!!

VanderL · #18 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 05:39 PM

Here http://library.thinkquest.org/18188/englis...3.htm?tqskip1=1
it is said that not only are the winds 2400 km/s, but they are also retrograde. I know what they must have been eating at the festival!

damienpaul · #19 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 05:45 PM

yes, waaaay to much baked beans! and in the wrong direction!

Wow, what a planet and its baked bean eating inhabitants!!

this is an interesting conundrum! possible internal source - clearly it looks to be pretty darn turbulent in the atmosphere...hmmm

VanderL · #20 (**permalink**) 23-December-2003, 06:40 PM

Extremely cold turbulence; it seems to be -220 degrees Celsius on Neptune. What weather system could thrive on an internal heat source producing such a small amount of heat?
It's almost like the weather systems have little to do with the planets, or their distance to the Sun.
Rotation is indeed something to consider; Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus (retrograde) rotate quite fast, but it won't fit. Venus "rotates" once every 240 something days (retrograde as well, could they be having the Neptune party together with Uranians?), and is hotter than hell.
Cheers.

Matthew · #21 (**permalink**) 24-December-2003, 12:14 AM

Venus's atmosphere would be powered by the massive amount of heat the planet has.

damienpaul · #22 (**permalink**) 24-December-2003, 01:11 AM

Which leaves the quandry of the Outer Planets, just how are those huge wind speeds and storms started and mostly, how are they maintained?

Richard Holle · #23 (**permalink**) 09-May-2008, 08:55 PM

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1...ere/index.html

Saturn's seasonal weather article....