Jupiter’s winds appear as colorful, swirling bands in this computer model designed to mimic the planet’s turbulent atmosphere.

This three-dimensional model suggests that Jupiter’s winds begin deep within the planet’s interior, then rise up to the surface by convection.

The winds of Jupiter continuously circle the planet at speeds in excess of several hundred miles per hour. Massive winds running from east to west reach speeds of up to 340 miles per hour – twice as strong as those in an Earth hurricane – along the planet’s equator, with an alternating pattern of jets blowing at higher latitudes.

“Our model suggests convection driven by deep internal heat sources power Jupiter’s winds,” said Jonathan Aurnou, an assistant professor of planetary physics at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). “On Earth, we get strong changes in wind patterns every season. On Jupiter, there is almost no variation. There are changing cloud structures, but the large-scale winds remain essentially constant.”

Aurnou generated the model with colleagues Moritz Heimpel, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and Johannes Wicht, of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. The research appeared in the journal Nature earlier this month.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: M. Heimpel/University of Alberta, Department of Physics.