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Simulation of Jovian moist convection with an active water and ammonia hydrological cycle using the EPIC GCM
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  • Ramanakumar Sankar,
  • Chloe Klare,
  • Csaba Palotai,
  • Ashley Hughes
Ramanakumar Sankar
Florida Institute of Technology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Chloe Klare
Florida Institute of Technology
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Csaba Palotai
Florida Institute of Technology
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Ashley Hughes
Florida Institute of Technology
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Abstract

Jovian moist convection has been the study of both observational and modelling attempts for several decades. In the Pioneer and Voyager era, plumes of volatiles were observed to erupt from the deep atmosphere regularly, prompting the question of the strength of the internal heat flux within Jupiter’s atmosphere. Later, Galileo observed towering convective storms coinciding with the presence of lightning. Analysis of cloud formation on Jupiter considering the abundances of various condensible species revealed that the most likely source of these convective events was the deep water cloud which contains both the high density of volatiles and necessary convective potential to breach the upper cloud deck. In this study, we use the Explicit Planetary Isentropic Coordinate (EPIC) atmospheric 3-dimensional general circulation model (GCM) to study the formation of Jovian moist convective events, using an active cloud microphysics scheme. We focus on the region centered on the 24° N jet where plume formation has been observed several times. We initiate cloud formation assuming different initial deep abundance values of both water and ammonia to test the sensitivity on the strength of plume formation and the buildup of convective potential energy (CAPE). We find that convective activity is affected by the thermal properties of the environment – the jet and the North Equatorial Belt are conducive of convection while the North North Tropical Zone is not.