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Neptune's Wind Speeds Obtained by Tracking Clouds in Voyager Images

1989; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 245; Issue: 4924 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.245.4924.1367

1095-9203

Heidi B. Hammel, R. F. Beebe, E. M. De Jong, C. J. Hansen, Colin D. Howell, Andrew P. Ingersoll, T. V. Johnson, S. S. Limaye, J. A. Magalhães, James B. Pollack, L. A. Sromovsky, V. E. Suomi, C. E. Swift,

Scientific Research and Discoveries

Images of Neptune obtained by the narrow-angle camera of the Voyager 2 spacecraft reveal large-scale cloud features that persist for several months or longer. The features' periods of rotation about the planetary axis range from 15.8 to 18.4 hours. The atmosphere equatorward of -53 degrees rotates with periods longer than the 16.05-hour period deduced from Voyager's planetary radio astronomy experiment (presumably the planet's internal rotation period). The wind speeds computed with respect to this radio period range from 20 meters per second eastward to 325 meters per second westward. Thus, the cloud-top wind speeds are roughly the same for all the planets ranging from Venus to Neptune, even though the solar energy inputs to the atmospheres vary by a factor of 1000.