Can gravity waves heat Jupiters thermosphere?
L. A. Young, R. V. Yelle (Boston University , Center for Space Physics), R. E. Young (NASA Ames Research Center) Young et al. (1997) analyzed the Galileo ASI data under the assumption that the time-averaged velocity field was zero. Under this assumption, they showed that the waves observed in Jupiter’s thermosphere can explain the large temperature in Jupiter’s thermosphere. Matcheva and Strobel (1998) argue that the net vertical mass flux, rather than the background velocity, should be zero and show that the effect of wave heating is reduced under this assumption. In Jupiter’s real atmosphere neither the velocity of the background wind nor the local net mass flux is zero. Instead the upper atmosphere should be subject to a circulation pattern with velocities of order those induced by the waves. We further investigate the question of wave heating by examining the dissipation of waves in such an atmosphere.
