Simulation of how jovian anticyclones (blue) and cyclones (red) repel each other. This demonstrates why the jovian White Ovals and the cyclones between them repelled each other from 1938 when they formed to 1994 when they began clumping together. For details, see A. Youssef & P. S. Marcus "The dynamics of jovian white ovals from formation to merger" Icarus 162 74-93 (2003).

Simulation of how 2 jovian White Ovals anticyclones (red) with a cyclone (blue) between them remain locked together in a stable unit from 1994-98 when they lie in the trough of a Rossby wave (here shown as the interface of the dark and light blue background) that travels along an eastward-going jet stream. See the Icarus article cited above.

Simulation of the merger of two jovian White Ovals in 1998 and in 2000. The blue cyclone lying outside the 3 trapped vortices (lying in the trough of the Rossby wave) collides with the 3 trapped vortices. It is repelled but provides enough perturbation to the trapped vortices that the westward anticyclone (red) and trapped cyclone (blue) exchange places. This permits the 2 like-signed anticyclones (red) to lie next to each other without an intervening cyclone. This arrangement is unstable and the 2 anticyclones quickly merge. See Icarus article cited above.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) has almost no fluid motion in its interior. All the coherent fluid motion is confined to a high speed circumferential jet that moves counter-clockwise around the center. We call a vortex with this kind of velocity distribution a hollow vortex. This simulation shows that an isolated hollow vortex similar to the GRS is unstable and "turns itself inside-out".

This is another simulation of a hollow vortex. However, for this simulation, we also take into account the steep potential vorticity gradient associated with the eastward jet south of the Great Red Spot. The result is a stable hollow vortex that does not turn itself inside-out.

This is a preliminary result of our model that attempts to explain the hollowness of the Great Red Spot.

Early (1986) numerical simulation of how a Red Spot (here, a vortex with the same sign or rotation as the ambient shear) remains intact while the blue spot (a vortex of opposite sign) is shredded. For details, see P. S. Marcus "Jupiter's great red spot and other vortices" Annual Review Astron. & Astrophys. 31 523-573 (1993).

Early (1986) numerical simulation of how a ring of vorticity (with the same sign vorticity as the ambient shear) is unstable to waves that grow, roll-up and break into 3 separate vortices which then merge together. See Annual Review Astron. & Astrophys. article cited above.

Actual Jupiter Red Spot

Rotating Annulus Experiment at the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics University of Texas at Austin
Professor Harry Swinney, Director.

Turbulent bursts in Couette-Taylor flow with inner and outer cylinders rotating in opposite directions. The view is at a fixed radius (approximately half way between the inner and outer cylinders) with the vertical axis of the figure parallel to the cylinders' axes. The horizontal axis is in the azimuthal direction. Here one can see the base flow is a spiral and the instability leading to the bursts form on the spirals. For details, see K. Coughlin and P. S. Marcus "Turbulent bursts in Couette-Taylor flows'' PRL 77 2214-2217 1996.

Turbulent bursts in Couette-Taylor flow with inner and outer cylinders rotating in opposite directions as in the movie above. The view is at a fixed azimuthal angle with the vertical axis of the figure parallel to the cylinders' axes. The horizontal axis is the radial direction with the inner cylinder on the left and outer cylinder on the right.

Turbulent bursts in Couette-Taylor flow with inner and outer cylinders rotating in opposite directions as in the movie above. Views looking down along the cylinders' axes. The azimuthal velocity is shown. The angular velocity of the pattern changes direction during a turbulent burst.

Turbulent Bursts in Couette - Taylor Flow at the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics University of Texas at Austin
Professor Harry Swinney, Director.

Chaotic Interpenetrating Spiral Vortex Flow at the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics University of Texas at Austin
Professor Harry Swinney, Director.