A researcher from University of Alberta in Canada was able to come up with 3D simulations of jet streams and storms on Jupiter and Saturn, elevating the available knowledge and information that experts know of the planetary dynamics.
The result of the presentation gives way to an enhanced understanding of the planets, as well as information regarding the patterns of Earth's weather via ocean currents and jet streams.
One of the people behind the simulations is Moritz Heimpel, a physics professor from the Canadian university. He acknowledged that the origin and motion of jet streams and storms (vortices) continue to be a puzzle for scholars, amid the 350 years of observations and analyses.
In the past, simulations with shallow layers failed to sufficiently demonstrate the jet streams on Jupiter and Saturn. Deep-layer models also fell short as it did not generate vortices.
With these limitations, Heimpel and colleagues decided to take the investigation a notch higher by utilizing supercomputers and fluid dynamics equations to generate more realistic demonstrations of the origins of both vortices and jet streams.
Heimpel said one of the biggest challenges in performing the endeavor is to determine how deep the structures will go. As storms are attached to the jet streams, a solid surface to halt it is not present.
The simulations of Heimpel showed that jet streams go deep into the interior and the vortices move in rather shallow depths. Vortices can last for centuries, as opposed to Earth's storms, which eventually die down after being exposed to a land mass.
The study is said to be based largely on curiosity and that the ideas they have produced are mostly rooted from observations. Data from space missions and ground-based telescopes provide significant clues.
"Now we want to match the observations with the theory." Heimpel said.
Now, Heimpel said ordinary people can pick up a regular home telescope and view the structures that they are able to describe in their study.
Despite the presence of Cassini spacecraft near Saturn and Juno in Jupiter, Heimpel said, the debates cannot die down just yet.
Heimpel and his team are now looking forward to Juno's arrival in Jupiter's orbit in 2016, as well as Cassini's transfer to Saturn's polar orbit in 2017.
"These two missions will be key to verifying some of the predictions of our computer simulations," said Heimpel. Aside from answers to space phenomenon, this feat will also surely raise new questions and controversies, which the researchers plans to tackle via sophisticated studies.
The study was published in Nature Geoscience on Monday, Nov. 30.
