Great Red Spot Taller?

Fig. 1. Recent comparison of Earth and Great Red Spot.

The Great Red Spot, is described by the most recent NASA press release, as an anticyclonic ‘storm’ which has shrunk over the last 150 years from a width of more than three earth diameters to slightly larger than the Earth, as shown in Figure 1. Despite its recent contracting, the spiraling winds within it have not become stronger. The most interesting new aspect is that it is extending higher above the cloud-tops.

Cyclic Catastrophism

As established in the previous post, Cyclic Catastrophism maintains that the GRS is the top of a hot vortex produced by a continuous fusion reaction on Jupiter’s solid methane gas hydrate (MGH) surface east of the spot, which powers all of the giant planet’s unique features: its temperature excess; the tinted clouds; the multiple zonal wind bands and belts; and the most powerful magnetic field of any planet in the solar system.

Fig. 2. Effect on GRS due to decrease in power from A to B

As the power of the fusion reaction decreases, these features will change. The most obvious being the decrease in the size of GRS. Because the unidentified atmospheric particles are continuously being released from the clathrate MGH surface by the fusion, the thickness of the visible clouds will decrease and the surface wind bands will become less powerful, thus the hot vortex is not as stretched longitudinally and is rising more vertically, resulting in its greater height above the cloud-tops.

The NASA Juno mission team is not likely to sense the changes, other than those of the GRS detected by the unsophisticated JunoCam, because they, indeed all planetary scientists, believe that no significant changes could occur on a ‘gas giant’. Changes in the thickness of the visible cloud layer, between +/- 70 degrees latitude, will not be noticed because the non-zero odd gravity harmonics are currently thought to be indicative of atmospheric dynamics, while they are actually due to permanent surface features. The most quantitative measurement capable of detecting recent changes is the Juno magnetic field instrument. The predicted changes should be evident in a comparison of the magnetic field amplitudes measured by the Juno mission between PJ 3 and PJ 11.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be. A. Einstein