“Turbulent Orb,” a spherical vessel filled with deep-blue fluid, vividly reveals the movements of the currents inside.  Similar patterns of turbulence can be viewed from above in the sculpture “Jovian Landscape,” fluid in a shallow disk that can be spun to produce turbulent flow patterns.  These two sculptures offer analogies to the movements of air currents such as Earth’s swirling hurricanes and the atmospheres of Jupiter and the other gas giant planets.  The rapid spinning of a planetary body deflects the flow of gases or liquids on its surface or in its atmosphere into complex, chaotic turbulence patterns.

As you spin these two sculptures, friction between the fluid and the sculpture’s glass causes the fluid to rotate.  Centrifugal force organizes the flow into bands that align with the direction of spin.  Bands similar to these are observable on solid, rocky planets with atmospheres (such as Earth, Venus, and Mars) and on planets that are composed primarily of gas (the gas giants, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune).  The bands are especially visible on Jupiter because organic compounds more vividly color the clouds on Jupiter, and Jupiter has less atmospheric haze to hide the clouds.

All of the gas giant planets rotate faster than the Earth. While the Earth rotates once in twenty-four hours, Jupiter spins once in about ten hours.  Because of this, and its much greater equatorial diameter, Jupiter’s equator moves faster than the Earth’s.  The greater speed at the planet’s surface makes the effects of the Coriolis force more powerful than on Earth, and produces a more fertile environment for turbulent airflow.

Photo Credit: NASA

The Turbulent Surface of the Planet Jupiter

The gases on a planet such as Jupiter flow because heat from the planet’s interior is being carried to the surface by convection (see “Convection Cells”), and then radiated into space. The rotational Coriolis force (see “Cyclone”) affects the upward and downward motion: upward motion is deflected away from the direction of the planet’s rotation, while downward motion is deflected in the same direction as the rotation.  Flow across the surface, from north to south, or south to north, is also deflected by the Coriolis force: flow toward the equator is deflected in the direction opposite the planet’s rotation, while flow away from the equator is deflected in the same direction as planetary rotation.  All of this upward, downward, northward, and southward motion and deflection results in a chaotic interplay between the flows, producing swirls, ripples, waves, and lanes.