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C. J. Palotai, T. E. Dowling, R. Morales-Juberías (CPL/U. Louisville)
We are studying the interaction of Jupiter's hydrological cycle with the formation and maintenance of its long-lived vortices and jet streams using numerical simulations. We are particularly interested in establishing the importance of the large convective storm system to the northwest of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS). We have adapted into the EPIC model the cloud microphysics scheme used at Colorado State University (Fowler et al. 1996, J.\ Cli.\ 9, 489), which contains prognostic equations for vapor, liquid cloud, ice cloud, rain and snow. We are focussing on the role of water, but the EPIC model can also handle multiple species (water, ammonia, etc.). Processes that are currently working in the microphysics model include large-scale condensation/deposition, cloud evaporation, melting/freezing, and Bergeron-Findeisen diffusional growth of ice from supercooled liquid. The form of precipitation on gas giants is a major unknown. We are currently using a simple scheme for precipitation, but are studying the effect that processes known to be important in terrestrial models have on our results, including formation and accretion of rain and snow, preciptation evaporation, detrainment and cloud-top entrainment. We will present comparisons of ``dry'' and ``wet'' runs of a channel Jupiter EPIC simulation covering -40S to the equator that includes various initial water-vapor profiles and a GRS model. The effects of latent heating on the energy budget and vertical transport will be discussed.
This research is funded by NASA's Planetary Atmospheres and EPSCoR Programs.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.louisville.edu/research/cpl/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: csaba.palotai@louisville.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #4
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.