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Author(s):
E. Matsunaga, T.Yabe and M. Tajima
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Title:
Baroclinic Vortex Generation by a Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Impact
Date of publication:
Sep. 1997
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Key words:
Comet, SL9, Vortex, Simulation
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Abstract:
Impact of Shoemaker-Levy 9 caused various changes on Jupiter. One of them is the comet impact sites left on the surface of Jupiter. These impact sites were very stable and long-1ived, which is a mystery worthy for detailed investigation. One hypothesis that is most probable one is to attribute these stable structures to vortex. Then a question arises when the vortex is generated. This paper shows that quite a large vortex can be generated by baroclinic mechanism which is caused by non-parallel density and pressure gradients during the break-up of the comet in Jovian atmosphere. The size of the vorticity thus generated is consistent with the size of comet impact sites under Kelvin's circulation theorem.
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