MadSci Network: Earth Sciences
Query:

Subject: Does the energy for Jupiter's weather come primarily from the sun?

Date: Fri Feb 14 12:02:08 2003
Posted by Teddy
Grade level: grad (science) School: UC Santa Barbara
City: Santa Barbara State/Province: CA Country: USA
Area of science: Earth Sciences
ID: 1045242128.Es
Message:

In the posted answer to a previous question
(http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1023118998.Es.r.html), it was suggested
that 97% of the earth's energy was derived from the sun, and that this energy
was primarily responsible for observed weather patterns. Gas giants like Jupiter
 have large, stable weather patterns that are presumably very energetic -- if I
understand correctly, Jupiter's "great red spot" is a storm nearly the size of
the earth -- and these planets are many AU distant from the sun. Presumably the
solar energy available to power these weather patterns drops with the square of
the distance to the sun, so that a planet like Jupiter, which is more than 5 AU
from the Sun, should receive less than 4% of the solar energy that the Earth
does. More distant planets with weather patterns (e.g., Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune) should receive even less energy. Is the weather of these planets still
derived from the sun, and if so is the Earth's weather correspondingly more
"severe" than the weather on the more distant planets (i.e., is Jupiter's red
spot actually a very feeble weather pattern when compared to a hurricane)?


Re: Does the energy for Jupiter's weather come primarily from the sun?

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