A Numerical Study of Jovian Moist Convection with a new Convective Adjustment Scheme, and Implications for Jupiter's Water Abundance
Abstract
Jupiter’s atmosphere features a variety of clouds that are formed from the interplay
of chemistry and atmospheric dynamics, from the deep red of the Great Red Spot to
the high altitude white ammonia clouds present in the zones. Beneath these upper
level clouds, water condensation occurs, and sporadically leads to the formation of
towering convective storms, driven by the release of large amounts of latent heat.
These storms result in a widespread disruption of the cloud and dynamical structure
of the atmosphere at the latitude where they form, making the study of these events
paramount in understanding the dynamics at depth, and the role of water in the jovian
atmosphere. In this work, we use the Explicit Planetary hybrid-Isentropic Coordinate
(EPIC) General Circulation Model (GCM) to study the jovian atmosphere, with a
focus on moist convective storm formation from water condensation. We present the
addition of a sub-grid scale moist convective module to model convective water cloud
formation. We focus on the 24° N latitude, the location of a high speed jetstream,
where convective upwellings have been observed every 4-5 years. We find that the
convective ability, and vertical mass and energy flux of the atmosphere is strongly
correlated with the amount of water, and determine an upper limit of the amount of
water in the atmosphere as twice the solar [O/H] ratio.