A joint international research team led by scientists from the US Space and Aviation Agency (NASA) was able to reveal a new set of secrets of the climate of Jupiter, the giant of the solar system, which could contribute to a better understanding of the Earth's climate by extension.

To reach these results, which were published in a group of new studies in the journals "Science" and "The Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets" on October 28, the team examined a large amount of data. coming from the space probe "Juno", specifically the unit of measurement of microwave radiation (MWR) installed on it.

Since its launch in August 2011 and its arrival at Jupiter in July 2016, the Juno probe has been placed in a polar orbit around the planet to study its composition, gravitational field, magnetic field and magnetosphere.

In addition, the Juno probe is interested in studying the planet's climate, and in particular its storm system.

The probe also examines whether Jupiter has a solid core, and studies the percentage of water in its atmosphere and how it is distributed.

Size of the Great Red Spot relative to Earth (NASA)

"Deep" red spot

According to these new results, included in a NASA press release, which describes a three-dimensional form of the planet's climate, hurricanes are warmer at the top with a lower density in the atmosphere, while they are cooler at the bottom, with a higher density in the atmosphere.

On the other hand, another type called anticyclones (which rotate in the opposite direction to regular tornadoes), are cooler at the top but warmer at the bottom.

The new findings also indicate that these storms are much deeper than expected, with some extending more than 100 kilometers under the clouds, but the most striking was the depth of the Great Red Spot, which reached 500 kilometers.

The Great Red Spot is the largest storm in the solar system, and it is huge enough to place more than one ball the size of the planet, and researchers believe - in this range - that it rotates 300-400 years, and its wind speed exceeds the barrier of 400 kilometers per hour.

Ferrell cells on Earth and Jupiter (NASA)

Jupiter's Wonder Belts

When you contemplate Jupiter in the telescope for the first time, you will notice that it is divided into layers one above the other, and these layers are nothing but the movement of enormous storms that revolve on Jupiter relentlessly.

These dark belts and light regions on Jupiter have always been a secret, but thanks to the new results of the Juno probe, it turns out that inside it is exactly like what happens on Earth, but more harshly, as the winds fluctuate in a specific region of the planet's atmosphere between the top and bottom.

These fluctuations are called "Ferrel cells", and according to new studies, in the case of Jupiter, they are 30 times larger in number.

Polygonal polar cyclones on Jupiter (NASA)

Polygonal tornadoes

In addition to the above, these studies also found the mechanism by which some strange types of polar storms took the form of a pentagon or octagon, which turned out to be due to their very flexible interaction with the surrounding areas, unlike the situation on Earth.

These results undoubtedly achieve a better understanding of the nature of the giant of the solar system;

Thus, this improves our ability to study it more in the future, but besides that, this type of study is useful for our planet as well.

Earth's climate is the only climate model we have, but we don't find other models to compare so that we can better understand Earth's climate itself.

From this point of view, Jupiter is a very harsh picture of the Earth's climate, and by studying it we can understand our extreme weather conditions.