Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Epistemophilia: the Great Red anti-cyclone

So I was watching something about Jupiter in the gym the other day and they mentioned that the Great Red Spot is an anti-cyclone, not a cyclone. Because it turns in the direction opposite that the planet rotates. That's kind of fascinating, no? It can happen on this planet too but the fluid dynamics get all crazy complicated. For a storm on the Earth to be anti-cyclonic, it would have to rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Great Red Spot rotates counter-clockwise. Here is what I don't understand: as seen from above, most planets in our solar system, including Jupiter, appear to rotate counter-clockwise. The exceptions are Venus and Uranus (although some sites list only Venus and some others list Pluto as well.) So wouldn't the Great Red Spot be a cyclone if it's moving in the same direction as Jupiter? Must keep looking for the answer on this.

(there is also a smaller storm called the Little Red Spot which was until recently white. They think the storm kicked up materials that had a reaction to ultraviolet light and changed color in a chemical reaction.)

There is a similar storm on Neptune called the Great Dark Spot and on Saturn called Anne's Spot. Apparently there are also anticyclones on Venus' pole.

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